Cibrary  of  "the  theological  Seminar? 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 


PRESENTED  BY 


John  Stuart  Conning,  D.D# 
DS  143  . P47  3 

Peters,  Madison  Clinton, 
1859-1913. 

Justice  to  the  Jew 


MADISON  C.  PETERS 


JUSTICE  TO  THE 

THE  STORY  OF 


WHAT  HE  HAS  DONE  FOR  THE  WORLD 


BY 


l 


MADISON  C.  PETERS 


Author  of  “  The  Great  Hereafter”  "The  Panacea  for  Poverty “ The  Wit  and 

Wisdom  of  the  Talmud  f  etc. 


There  is  no  virtue  so  truly  great  and  godlike  as  justice. — Joseph  Addison. 

The  Jews  are  among  the  aristocracy  of  every  land ;  if  a  literature  is  called  rich  in 
the  possession  of  a  few  classic  tragedies,  what  shall  we  say  to  a  national  tragedy 
lasting  for  fifteen  hundred  years,  in  which  the  poets  and  the  actors  were  also  the 
heroes— George  Eliot. 


NEW  YORK 

THE  BAKER  AND  TAYLOR  CO, 
5  and  7  East  Sixteenth  Street 


Copyright,  1899 
By  F.  Tennyson  Neely 

Copyright,  1900 
By  Madison  C.  Peters 


A  ll  rights  reserved 


TO 

REV.  DR.  H.  PEREIRA  MENDES, 

Minister  of  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  Shearith  Israel  Synagogue,  New  York. 

IN  GRATEFUL  RECOGNITION  OF  MUCH  KINDLY  ADVICE, 
HELPFULNESS  AND  ENCOURAGEMENT, 

THIS  BOOK 


IS  RESPECTFULLY  INSCRIBED  BY  THE  AUTHOR. 


LINES  TO  AN  ANTI-SEMITE. 


Stand  !  as  God  saw  thee  of  old  time 
We  see  and  know  thee  now: 

The  brand  of  unforgotten  crime 
Still  black  upon  thy  brow. 

That  mark,  Eternal  Justice  traced, 

Thou  coverest  in  vain ; 

Its  blighting  stigma  uneffaeed: 

Where  is  thy  brother,  Cain? 

Ay,  hypocrite,  and  if  thou  wilt, 

White  hands,  in  protest,  spread! 

The  blood  by  coarser  murderers  spilt 
Was  at  thy  bidding  shed. 

Thy  speech  inflamed  each  ignorant  soul 
With  thine  own  maddening  wine; 

And  when  their  fury  burst  control, 

Their  brutal  acts  were  thine. 

For  thee,  the  crowded  Plaza  seethed 
Round  Seville’s  high-built  pyre; 

And  shrinking  forms  of  women  wreathed 
With  coiling  snakes  of  lire. 

Thy  servants  fanned  their  ardent  breath 
Into  a  fiercer  flame; 

And  watched,  well-pleased,  the  dallying  death, 
That  lingered  ere  it  came. 


vi 


LINES  TO  AN  ANTI-SEMITE. 


But  thou  hast  darker  secrets  yet, 

And  deeds  more  dear  to  hell. 

The  sightless,  soundless  oubliette 
Hath  kept  thy  counsel  well. 

The  silent  hours  that  crush  the  heart, 

The  soul-destroying  gloom: 

Thine,  devil,  was  the  fiendish  art 
Devised  that  living  tomb. 

Woe,  woe  on  the  unhappy  state, 

That  learns  thy  bloody  creed; 

And  makes  her  mansion  desolate 
Thy  cruel  lust  to  feed. 

Before  one  dread,  impartial  bar 
Her  sons  shall  find,  ere  long, 

How  terrible  the  helpless  are, 

The  feeble  ones  how  strong ! 

Lo!  where  the  dotard  empress,  Spain, 

With  loosened  necklace  stands, 

While  those  fair  jewels,  grain  by  grain, 

Slip  from  her  nerveless  hands ! 

Unmoved  she  sees  her  pearls  depart, 

And  smiles  with  alien  eyes; 

For  heavy  on  her  palsied  heart 
The  curse  of  Israel  lies. 

Foul  shark,  whose  malice  never  sleeps, 

On  noblest  victims  fed: 

What  swimmer  bold  shall  cleave  the  deeps 
Thy  ravin  left  so  red ; 

And  when  thy  bulk  sways  up  to  breathe 
On  that  encrimsoned  tide, 

With  one  unerring  home-thrust  sheathe 
His  dagger  in  thy  side? 

— Edward  Sydney  Tyler:  London  Spectator , 
Feb.  25,  1899. 


PREFACE. 


This  is  a  book  of  facts  rather  than  opinions. 
It  does  not  pretend  to  exhaust  the  subject.  It 
is  not  written  for  the  special  student  of  Jew¬ 
ish  history,  but  for  popular  use.  We  believe 
that  the  facts  here  given  are  very  generally  un¬ 
known  both  to  Jews  and  Gentiles.  We  speak  of 
non-Jews  as  Gentiles  (in  Hebrew  phraseology 

Gentiles  were  all  the  nations  or  peoples  besides 
the  Jews)  because  their  treatment  of  the  Jews 
makes  Christian  a  misnomer.  Various  are  the 
names  by  which  Jews  are  known.  The  Bible  calls 
them  “the  people  of  God.”  Mordecai  said: 
“For  he  had  told  him  that  he  was  a  Jew.” 
From  the  time  of  Babylon  and  the  Great  Disper¬ 
sion  the  descendants  of  the  patriarchs  have 
been  called  Jews  ( Jelmdim )  or  descendants  of 
Judah.  Jonah  said:  “I  am  a  Hebrew.”  He¬ 
brew  is  derived  from  Ibri ,  meaning  the  other 


PREFACE. 


Vlll 

side  of  the  Euphrates,  or  from  Eber ,  the  great- 
grandson  of  Shem.  Elijah  said:  “Israel  shall 
thy  name  be.”  Israel  ( prince  or  prevailer  with 
God )  in  commemoration  of  Jacob’s  conflict  of 
faith  with  the  heavenly  messenger  at  Peniel. 
If  what  we  have  written  will  essentially  modify 
the  views  which  the  Gentile  world  holds  with 
regard  to  the  position  of  the  Jew,  and  will  lead 
Christians  to  grant  to  him  the  possession  of  the 
mental,  social,  moral,  and  spiritual  qualifica¬ 
tions  which  history  affirms,  and  if  we  can  make 
every  Jew  feel  as  Lord  Beaconsfield  felt  when 
taunted  in  the  House  of  Lords  for  his  Jewish 
extraction,  “I  can  well  afford  to  be  called  a 
Jew,”  we  shall  feel  well  repaid  for  the  labor 

involved  in  this  refined  study  of  history. 

M.  C.  P. 


SYNOPSIS  OF  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I.  page 

JEWISH  PRE-REVOLUTIONARY  SETTLEMENTS. 

Christopher  Columbus  and  the  Participation  of  the  Spanish 
Jews  in  the  Discovery  of  America.  The  First  Arrival  of 
Jews  in  New  Amsterdam.  Governor  Peter  Stuyvesant’s 
Persistent  Hostility.  Denied  Civil  and  Religious  Liberty 
under  the  English.  The  High  Standard  of  Excellence  of 
the  old  Jewish  Merchants  of  New  York.  Roger  Williams, 
the  Pioneer  of  Religious  Liberty  in  America,  attracting  the 
Jews  to  Newport.  The  Jews  make  Newport  the  formid¬ 
able  Commercial  Rival  of  New  York.  The  Jewish 
Cemetery  at  Newport.  Address  of  the  Newport  Con¬ 
gregation  to  Washington  and  his  Reply.  The  Jews  in 
Philadelphia  and  Baltimore.  The  Intolerant  Provision  in 
the  Constitution  of  Maryland.  Jews  in  Savannah. 
Settlement  in  Charleston.  Correspondence  between 
Hebrews  and  George  Washington .  17 

CHAPTER  n. 

THE  NUMBER  AND  DISTRIBUTION  OF  THE  JEWS. 

Half  of  the  Descendants  of  Abraham  still  Subject  to 
Special  Laws.  The  Number  of  Jews  in  the  Different 
Countries  of  the  World.  Bright  Prospects  for  the  Jews 
in  Palestine.  Modern  Ideas  Gaining  Ground .  53 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  GROWTH  OF  JEWISH  POPULATION  IN  THE  UNiTED 


STATES 


59 


CONTENTS. 


Xll 


CHAPTER  IV. 

PATRIOTISM  OF  THE  EUROPEAN  JEW.  page 

The  Charge  that  the  Jew  is  not  and  cannot  be  a  Patriot  Refut¬ 
ed.  Wherever  the  J ews  have  been  Permitted  the  Oppor¬ 
tunity  of  Fighting  for  their  Country,  they  have  Proved 
that  the  Contumely  Heaped  upon  them  has  not  Quenched 
their  Manhood.  The  Ignominies  which  were  Heaped  upon 
the  Jews  during  the  Middle  Ages.  Relentless  and  Diabol¬ 
ical  Persecutions.  Yet  the  Jews  were  never  Wanting  in 
Patriotism.  In  the  Spanish  Battles  they  Fought  as  Brav¬ 
est  Knights.  Wherever  the  Jew  found  a  Friend  in  his 
Country  his  Country  found  a  Friend  in  Him.  The  Ger¬ 
mans  as  Jew-Baiters.  The  Jews  the  most  Anciently  Cult¬ 
ured  People  in  the  W orld.  The  Patriotism  of  the  Jews  in 
the  Franco-Prussian  War.  Their  Fight  for  their  Civil  and 
Political  Rights  in  Germany.  Not  until  1869  were  they 
Relieved  from  the  Mediaeval  Yoke.  The  Emancipation  of 
the  Jews  in  France.  The  Promptness  with  which  they 
Rallied  under  the  Banner  of  the  Empire  and  the  Republic 
when  the  Safety  of  their  Country  was  Imperilled.  Napo¬ 
leon  and  the  Jews.  Jews  in  the  Hungarian  Revolution. 
Jews  in  the  Italian  Army.  Jews  in  England.  Their 
Complete  Emancipation  not  Brought  About  until  1858. 
Jews  who  have  Distinguished  Themselves  in  the  British 
Army  and  Navy .  65 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  JEW  AS  AN  AMERICAN  PATRIOT. 

Jews  in  the  First  Organized  Movement  for  Separation  from 
England.  Haym  Salomon  and  Other  Jews  who  Sacrificed 
Their  Fortunes  for  Independence.  Officers  who  Distin- 
guised  Themselves  upon  the  Battlefields  of  the  Revolu¬ 
tion.  The  Commemoration  of  the  first  Battlefield  of  the 
Revolutionary  War  made  Possible  through  a  Jew. 
Distinguished  Soldiers  in  the  War  of  1812.  Jewish  Pa¬ 
triotism  in  the  Mexican  War.  The  Jew  a  Conspicious 
Figure  in  our  Regular  Army  and  Navy  from  the  Earliest 
Periods  of  the  Republic.  Jews  in  the  Civil  War.  Officers 
who  Achieved  High  Distinction.  The  Part  the  Jews  took 


CONTENTS. 


Xlll 


PAGE 

in  Creating  Public  Opinion  through  the  Political  Move¬ 
ments  for  the  Abolition  of  Slavery.  Over  4,000  Jews  in 
the  American  Army  during  the  War  with  Spain.  Their 
Gallant  and  Meritorious  Services .  . .  89 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  JEW  IN  THE  ARTS. 

As  Poets — Halevi’s  Soul-stirring  “Lay  of  Zion.”  Heine’s 
Account  of  Halevi.  Solomon  Ibn  Gabirol.  Italian, 
Austrian,  French  and  German  Poets.  Heine,  Goethe’s 
Successor.  Selections  from  Heine.  The  Poets  of  England 
and  America.  Jewish  Novelists.  Jewish  Dramatists, 

The  Drama  in  the  Early  Centuries.  The  first  Jewish  Con¬ 
tributions  to  the  Drama.  German,  French,  English  and 
American  Dramatists.  Jewish  Genius  on  the  Stage. 
Litterateurs  of  the  Essayist  Type.  Literary  Critics.  Jew¬ 
ish  Journalists.  The  Jews  in  Music.  Their  Triumphs  as 
Performers  as  Great  as  Composers.  The  Jews  as 
Painters,  Sculptors  and  Architects . .  109 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  JEW  IN  THE  SCIENCES. 

Eminent  Philosophers.  Philo,  Maimonides,  Levi  Ben  Gerson, 
Maimon,  Spinoza,  Mendelssohn  and  Others.  Why  the 
Members  of  Distinguished  Jewish  Families  Abandoned 
Judaism.  Jewish  Historians.  Antiquarians,  Econo¬ 
mists,  Statisticians,  Mathematicians,  Astronomers,  Ex¬ 
plorers  and  Philologists.  Our  Higher  Critics  Centuries 
Behind  the  Jew.  Botanists  and  Biologists.  The  Jews 
in  Medicine.  Their  Peculiarly  High  Position  in  the  Mid¬ 
dle  Ages.  As  Court  Physicians  Held  the  Lives  of  All 
Princes  and  Prelates  in  Their  Hands.  Original  Discov¬ 
eries  in  Medicine.  Arabic  Medicine  the  Daughter  of  Jew¬ 
ish  Medicine.  Maimonides’  Prayer.  The  Law.  Distin¬ 
guished  Jurists .  149 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  JEW  IN  POLITICS. 

Jews  who  Distinguished  Themselves  Politically  from  the  Tenth 
to  the  Eighteenth  Century.  The  J e ws  in  German  Politics. 


Xiv 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Famous  French  Statesmen.  The  Astonishing  Rapidity 
with  which  the  Jews  have  Reached  the  Highest  Round  in 
the  Ladder  of  Political  Fame  in  Italy.  The  Fight  for 
Equal  Rights  in  England,  and  the  Remarkable  Rise  of  the 
British  Jews  in  Politics.  Jewish  United  States  Senators, 
Congressmen,  Supreme  Court  Judges,  Consuls  and  Min¬ 
isters  to  Foreign  Countries.  State  and  Municipal  Officers.  180 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  JEW  IN  FINANCE. 

The  Rothschilds.  Capital  and  Jew  not  Synonymous  Terms. 
Jews  not  so  Rich  as  Popularly  Supposed.  The  Jews 
Originally  an  Agricultural  People.  Persecution  Made 
Them  Merchants.  The  Jews  as  Pioneers  in  Industrial 
Progress.  Jewish  Commerce  and  Civilization.  The  Part 
of  the  Jews  in  Rearing  the  Great  Metropolitan  Centers  of 
Commerce.  The  Important  Part  Consumers  Play  in  the 
Drama  of  World-Economy.  The  Producer  cannot  get  on 
without  the  Middle-man.  Shylock  not  a  Jew.  The 
Historical  Foundation  of  the  Pound  of  Flesh  Reverses 
the  Position  of  the  Jew  and  Christian.  Shylock,  the  Jew 
whom  Shakespeare  drew,  of  all  Shakespeare’s  Characters 
the  only  One  Untrue  to  Nature.  Gentiles  who  go  Old 
Shylock  one  Better.  The  History  of  Usury.  Not  a  Jew¬ 
ish  Characteristic.  History  Fails  to  make  a  Distinction 
between  Jews  and  their  Christian  Brethren.  The  most 
Infamously  Notorious  Usurers  of  History  were  not  Jews.  20  3 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE  JEW  IN  THE  PULPIT. 

The  Merit  of  Jewish  Preachers.  What  Jewish  Preachers 
have  to  say  Concerning  Vital  Questions.  Judaism 
Defined .  235 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  ATTITUDE  OF  MODERN  JUDAISM  TOWARD  CHRISTIANITY  . 

Dr.  Gottheil  on  “Jesus  and  the  Jews.”  A  Plea  for  a  Better 
Understanding  and  a  more  Friendly  Disposition  Between 
Various  Creeds.  The  New  Testament  in  the  Light  of 
Judaism.  The  Jewish  Sunday-Sabbath .  261 


CONTENTS. 


XV 


CHAPTER  XII.  page 

THE  TALMUD. 

Its  Literary  Beauties  and  Its  Ethics .  285 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW. 

Jews  gave  to  the  World  the  First  Republic.  They  gave  Us 
our  Bible.  Jesus  a  Jew.  Did  the  Jews  Crucify  Christ  ? 

The  Longevity  of  the  Jews.  The  Jews  a  Law-abiding 
People.  The  Jew  in  Charity.  Divorce  seldom  Hears  of 
Him.  Unknown  to  the  Potter’s  Field.  The  French 
Press  and  its  Attacks  on  the  Jews.  Is  there  to  be  a 
New  St.  Bartholomew  ?  Making  “Jew”  a  Verb  to  Desig¬ 
nate  Trickery  in  Trade.  Not  Fair  to  let  Prejudice  against 
Individuals  Develop  into  Prejudice  against  a  Race.  The 
Jew  is  what  We  Made  Him.  Parvenus  in  American 
Society.  Judenhas  Cannot  Shield  Itself  Behind  Chris¬ 
tianity.  Zionism.  America  the  Jewish  Canaan . 309 


Jewish  Pre-Revolutionary  Settlements. 


The  Jew  is  beyond  doubt  the  most  remarkable  man  of  this 
world — past  or  present.  Of  all  the  stories  of  the  sons  of  men, 
there  is  none  so  wild,  so  wonderful,  so  full  of  extreme  mutation, 
so  replete  with  suffering  and  horror,  so  abounding  in  extraor¬ 
dinary  providences,  so  overflowing  with  scenic  romance.  There 
is  no  man  who  approaches  him  in  the  extent  and  character  of  the 
influence  which  he  has  exercised  over  the  human  family.  His 
history  is  the  history  of  our  civilization  and  progress  in  this 
world,  and  our  faith  and  hope  in  that  which  is  to  come.  From 
him  have  we  derived  the  form  and  pattern  of  all  that  is  excellent 
on  earth  or  in  heaven.  If,  as  DeQuincey  says,  the  Roman 
Emperors,  as  the  great  accountants  for  the  happiness  of  more 
men  and  men  more  cultivated  than  ever  before  were  intrusted  to 
the  motions  of  a  single  will,  had  a  special,  singular  and  mys¬ 
terious  relation  to  the  secret  councils  of  heaven — thrice  truly 
may  it  be  said  of  the  Jew.  Palestine,  his  home,  was  the  central 
chamber  of  God’s  administration.  He  was  at  once  the  grand 
usher  to  these  glorious  courts,  the  repository  of  the  '  councils  of 
the  Almighty,  and  the  envoy  of  the  divine  mandates  to  the  con¬ 
sciences  of  men.  He  was  the  priest  and  faith-giver  to  mankind, 
and  as  such,  in  spite  of  the  jibe  and  jeer,  he  must  ever  be  con¬ 
sidered  as  occupying  a  peculiar  and  sacred  relation  to  'all  other 
peoples  of  this  world.  Even  now,  though  the  Jews  have  long 
since  ceased  to  exist  as  a  consolidated  nation  inhabiting  a 
common  country,  and  for  eighteen  hundred  years  have  been 
scattered  far  and  near  over  the  wide  earth,  their  strange  customs, 
their  distinct  features,  personal  peculiarities  and  their  scattered 
unity  make  them  still  a  wonder  and  an  astonishment. — Zebulon 
B.  Vance. 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


CHAPTER  I. 

JEWISH  PRE- REVOLUTIONARY  SETTLEMENTS. 

The  last  chapter  of  the  Jews  in  Spain  is  their 
first  chapter  on  the  Continent  of  America.  With 
the  same  hand  and  the  same  pen,  and  on  the 
same  day  on  which  Ferdinand  and  Isabella 
signed  that  infamous  edict  which  extirpated 
one  hundred  and  seventy  thousand  families  from 
the  land  of  their  birth,  because  they  declined  to 
have  Christianity  forced  upon  them,  they  also 
signed  the  articles  of  agreement  that  authorized 
Cristobal  Colon,  as  the  Spaniards  called  Colum¬ 
bus,  to  go  forth  in  search  of  another  world, 
where,  in  the  words  of  Castelar,  the  distin¬ 
guished  Spanish  publicist,  “creation  should  be 
new  born,  a  haven  be  afforded  to  the  quickening 
principle  of  human  liberty,  and  a  temple  be 
reared  to  the  God  of  enfranchised  and  redeemed 
conscience.’ * 

Dr.  Moses  Kayserling,  in  his  work,  “Christo¬ 
pher  Columbus  and  the  Participation  of  the  Jews 


20 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


in  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  Discoveries,” 
translated  into  English  by  Professor  Charles 
Gross,  of  Harvard  College,  has  established  be¬ 
yond  a  doubt  that  it  was  a  Castilian  Jew,  Louis 
de  Santangel,  Councillor  and  Comptroller  of  Ara¬ 
gon,  and  his  brother-in-law,  Gabriel  Sanchez,  the 
Treasurer  of  Aragon,  who  supplied  to  Columbus 
the  funds  needed  to  fit  out  his  caravels.  Isa¬ 
bella  did  not  sell  her  valuable  jewels  to  fit 
out  Columbus  for  his  voyage,  for  the  very 
good  reason  that  she  had  already  pawned 
or  sold  them  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the 
wars  then  devastating  her  country.  The 
maps  which  Columbus  used  were  drawn  up  by 
a  Portuguese  Jew.  Columbus  derived  much 
value  from  the  astronomical  tables  of  Abraham 
Zacuto.  These  tables  were  translated  from  the 
Hebrew  into  Latin  and  Spanish  by  Joseph  Ve- 
cincho,  Zacuto’s  pupil,  another  Jew,  distin¬ 
guished  as  a  physician,  cosmographer  and  math¬ 
ematician,  and  it  was  he  who  presented  a  copy 
of  these  tables  to  the  Genoese  navigator.  Rod¬ 
rigo  Sanchez,  a  nephew  of  Gabriel  Sanchez,  was 
designated  to  accompany  the  expedition  as 
veedor ,  or  superintendent,  at  the  special  re¬ 
quest  of  Queen  Isabella.  The  ship  physician 
Maestre  Bernal,  the  surgeon  Marco,  and  a  sailor 
Alonso  de  la  Calle,  were  Jews.  It  was  a  Jew, 


JEWISH  PRE-REVOLUTIONARY  SETTLEMENTS.  21 

Rodrigo  do  Triana,  who  first  saw  the  land,  and 
another  Jew,  Luis  de  Torres,  the  interpreter, 
who  first  set  foot  on  American  soil,  having  been 
sent  ashore  to  greet  the  Grand  Khan  of  India, 
whose  country  Columbus  believed  he  had 
reached  by  a  new  route. 

JEWS  IN  NEW  YORK. 

July  8,  1654,  witnessed  the  first  arrival  of 
Jews  in  New  Amsterdam,  as  New  York  City 
was  then  called — Jacob  Aboaf  and  Jacob  Barim- 
son.  In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  twenty- 
seven  men,  women  and  two  children  came  from 
Bahia,  abandoning  Brazil  when  the  Dutch  evac¬ 
uated  that  country,  and  once  again  in  all  possi¬ 
ble  haste  they  sought  the  shelter  of  a  Dutch 
colony.  Upon  their  arrival  here  their  goods 
were  seized  and  sold  at  public  auction  for  the 
payment  of  their  passage,  and  the  amount  real¬ 
ized  by  the  sale  being  insufficient,  Jacque  de  la 
Motthe,  the  master  of  the  vessel,  St.  Catarina, 
applied  to  the  court  for  an  order  that  two  of  the 
new  arrivals,  as  principals,  be  held  as  hostages 
until  the  full  amount  was  paid.  Accordingly 
David  Israel  and  Moses  Ambrosius  were  placed 
under  civil  arrest.  There  was  no  discrimination 
against  them  because  of  their  faith,  but  they 
were  detained  at  the  creditor’s  expense,  pend- 


22 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


ing  payment,  in  accordance  with  the  debtor’s 
laws  of  the  day. 

In  the  spring  of  1655  other  Jews  arrived  from 
Holland,  and  the  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from 
Brazil  increasing  the  Jewish  residents  in  New 
York,  gave  ground  for  the  belief  that  their  num¬ 
ber  would  grow  enormously.  The  bigoted  gov¬ 
ernor,  Peter  Stuyvesant,  who  had  absolute  con¬ 
trol  of  the  council  as  well  as  the  burgomasters 
and  schepens,  wrote  to  the  directors  of  the 
West  India  Company  in  Amsterdam,  requesting 
that  “none  of  the  Jewish  nation  be  permitted  to 
infest  the  New  Netherlands.”  The  answer  was 
worthy  of  tolerant  Holland — that  his  request 
“was  inconsistent  with  reason  and  justice.” 
Incensed  at  Stuyvesant’s  unwarranted  assump¬ 
tion  of  authority,  an  act  was  passed  permitting 
the  Jews  to  reside  and  trade  in  New  Nether¬ 
lands,  so  long  as  they  cared  for  their  own  poor. 

In  1655  D’Andrade  was  denied  the  privilege 
of  holding  real  estate.  During  the  same  year 
the  governor  and  the  council  refused  De  Lucena 
permission  to  prepare  a  burial  ground  for  the 
Jews,  on  the  ground  that  there  was  no  need  for 
it.  A  death  a  few  months  later  caused  the  rev¬ 
ocation  of  this  decision.  Stuyvesant  was  per¬ 
sistent  in  his  hostility  to  the  Jews,  forbidding 
them  to  trade  to  Fort  Orange  (Albany),  and  the 


JEWISH  PRE-REVOLUTIONARY  SETTLEMENTS.  23 

South  River  (the  Delaware),  denying  them  the 
privileges  in  New  Amsterdam  which  they  had 
enjoyed  in  old  Amsterdam.  A  letter  to  Stuy- 
vesant  from  the  directors  in  Amsterdam,  dated 
July  14,  1656,  established  their  rights: 

“We  have  seen  and  heard  with  displeasure 
that,  against  our  orders  of  the  15th  day  of  Feb¬ 
ruary,  1655,  issued  at  the  request  of  the  Jewish 
or  Portuguese  nation,  you  have  forbidden  them 
to  trade  to  Fort  Orange  and  the  South  River, 
also  the  purchase  of  real  estate,  which  is  granted 
to  them  without  difficulty  here  in  this  country, 
and  we  wish  it  had  not  been  done,  and  that  you 
had  obeyed  our  orders,  which  you  must  always 
execute  punctually  and  with  more  respect. 
Jews  or  Portuguese  people,  however,  shall  not  be 
employed  in  any  public  service  (to  which  they 
neither  are  admitted  in  this  city)  nor  allowed  to 
have  open  retail  shops,  but  they  may  quietly 
and  peacefully  carry  on  their  business  as  afore¬ 
said,  and  exercise  in  all  quietness  their  religion 
within  their  houses,  for  which  end  they  must 
without  doubt  endeavor  to  build  their  houses 
close  together  in  a  convenient  place  on  one  or  the 
other  side  of  New  Amsterdam — at  their  choice 
— as  they  have  done  here.”  The  chief  motive 
which  prompted  this  favorable  response  was  un¬ 
doubtedly  the  fact  that  there  were  several  Jew- 


24 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


ish  directors  of  the  West  India  Company — as 
the  directors  put  it,  it  was  “because  of  the 
large  amount  of  capital  which  the  Jews  have 
invested  in  the  shares  of  this  company.”  An 
interesting  example  of  the  old-time  intolerance 
is  the  fact  that  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  appealed  in 
vain  to  the  Dutch  government  for  permission  to 
settle  in  its  American  dominions  before  the 
Plymouth  settlement  was  made. 

In  1664  the  city  was  captured  by  the  English, 
and  its  name  changed  to  New  York,  in  honor  of 
the  Duke  of  York.  In  1683,  a  charter  of  liber¬ 
ties  and  privileges  was  adopted  by  the  colonial 
assembly,  which  among  other  provisions  de¬ 
clared  that  “no  one  should  be  molested,  pun¬ 
ished,  or  disquieted,  or  called  in  question  for 
his  religious  opinions,  who  professed  faith  in 
God  by  Jesus  Christ,”  and  that  all  such  persons 
should  “at  all  times  freely  have  and  enjoy  their 
judgments  and  consciences  in  matters  of  religion 
throughout  the  province,”  which  was  extending 
religious  freedom  to  all  but  Jews.  In  1685  the 
Jewish  residents  petitioned  Governor  Dongan 
“for  liberty  to  exercise  their  religion.”  The 
governor  referred  the  petition  to  the  mayor  and 
the  common  council  of  New  York,  who  decided 
“that  no  public  worship  is  tolerated  by  act  of 
assembly,  but  to  those  that  profess  faith  in 


JEWISH  PRE-REVOLUTIONARY  SETTLEMENTS.  25 

Christ,  and  therefore  the  Jew’s  worship  was  not 
to  be  allowed.” 

When  James,  Duke  of  York,  became  King 
James  II.,  his  former  instructions  to  Governor 
Andross,  who  had  succeeded  Dongan,  were  re¬ 
peated  to  permit  all  persons  of  whatever  religion 
freedom  of  worship,  and  we  find  in  1695  a  syna¬ 
gogue,  and  it  may  have  been  built  as  early  as 
1691,  for  De  la  Motthe  Cadillac  enumerates  in 
his  history  of  New  York  in  1691  the  Jews  as 
one  of  the  sects,  and  then  adds  that  each  sect 
had  its  church.  This  first  synagogue  in  the 
new  world  was  situated  on  the  north  side  of 
Mills  Street,  a  street  no  longer  in  existence. 

The  prosperity  of  the  Jews  at  this  time  is  at¬ 
tested  by  Lord  Bellamont’s  report,  who,  in  Oc¬ 
tober,  1700,  advised  the  English  government 
that  he  has  “much  trouble  in  paying  the  sol¬ 
diers’  subsistence  in  money  weekly,”  that  they 
“would  advance  no  money  whatever  on  his 
orders,”  “so  that  were  it  not  for  one  Dutch  mer¬ 
chant  and  two  or  three  Jews  that  lent  me  money 
I  should  have  been  undone.” 

The  prohibition  against  the  Jews  going  into 
retail  trade,  which  was  a  Dutch  law  that  some¬ 
how  remained  operative  under  English  law,  was 
gradually  dropped,  for  we  find  Jews  engaged  in 
retail  trade  in  numerous  instances  in  the  eight¬ 
eenth  century. 


26 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


On  a  question  concerning  the  contested  seat 
of  Colonel  Frederick  Phillips,  of  Westchester 
County,  the  General  Assembly  of  New  York,  on 
September  23,  1737,  resolved  that  Jews  could 
neither  vote  for  representatives  nor  be  admitted 
as  witnesses.  In  1740  Parliament  passed  the 
well-known  Naturalization  Act,  with  its  special 
provisions  for  Jewish  citizens,  but  the  act  had 
not  much  effect.  Judge  Daly  says  of  this  act: 

“Under  it,  foreigners  who  had  resided  seven 
years  in  a  British  colony,  without  being  absent 
at  any  time  over  two  months,  might  be  natural¬ 
ized;  and  if  -  such  foreigner  were  a  Jew,  he 
might  be  naturalized  without  taking  the  sacra¬ 
ment  of  the  Lord’s  Supper,  under  7  Jac.  I.  c.  ii, 
and  in  his  case,  under  this  act,  the  words  in  the 
abjuration  oath,  “on  the  true  faith  of  a  Chris¬ 
tian”  might  be  dispensed  with;  but  the  natura¬ 
lization  could  only  be  obtained  by  applying  for 
an  act  of  Parliament,  and  a  certificate  had  to  be 
obtained  from  the  home  secretary  before  a  bill 
could  be  introduced  that  the  person  applying 
was  of  good  character,  etc.  And  as  the  procur¬ 
ing  of  the  passage  of  an  act  of  parliament  was 
attended  with  a  great  deal  of  trouble  and  some 
expense,  very  few  Jews  availed  themselves  of 
it,  a  fact  ascertained  by  an  inquiry  made  by 
Parliament  in  1754  (Smollett’s  “History  of  Eng- 


JEWISH  PRE-REVOLUTIONARY  SETTLEMENTS.  27 

land,”  B.  III.  c.  iii.,  5  x.).  As  the  act  of  1740 
applied  to  persons  who  had  resided  the  pre¬ 
scribed  number  of  years  in  British  colonies,  an 
act  was  introduced  in  1753  (26  Geo.  ii.  c.  2)  by 
which  any  foreigner  could  be  naturalized  upon 
like  conditions.  It  passed  the  House  of  Lords 
without  opposition,  but  was  furiously  assailed 
in  the  House  of  Commons.  It  was  carried,  how¬ 
ever,  by  the  power  of  the  ministry.  This  act, 
which  is  historically  known  as  “The  Jew  Bill,” 
continued  only  for  a  few  months,  for  it  was  re¬ 
ceived  by  the  nation,  the  historians  tell  us,  with 
“horror  and  execration.”  Those  who  had  voted 
for  it  were  denounced  by  the  people.  The  bishop 
of  Norwich  was  insulted  at  the  communion, 
and  in  the  public  streets;  petitions  poured  in 
from  the  cities  for  its  repeal,  and  on  the  first 
day  of  the  next  session  a  bill  to  repeal  it  was 
introduced  and  hurriedly  passed  with  the  assent 
of  both  parties.  This  intolerance  in  respect  to 
the  Jews  continued  until  1825,  when  an  act  was 
passed  (9  Geo.  I.  V.  c.  27)  relieving  persons  to 
be  naturalized  thereafter  from  the  obligation  of 
taking  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord’s  Supper.” 

In  1749  a  riot  broke  out  in  New  York,  which, 
according  to  Governor  Clinton’s  report  to  Lon¬ 
don,  was  directed  “against  a  Jew  and  his  wife.” 
These  unfortunates,  according  to  the  governor’s 


28 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


testimony,  had  but  recently  arrived  from  Hol¬ 
land,  where  they  had  lived  in  handsome  style, 
“even  to  keeping  their  coach,”  but  had  been  re¬ 
duced  by  misfortune.  A  Mr.  Delaney  appears  to 
have  been  the  leader  in  the  assault,  and  he  with 
several  others,  “with  their  faces  blackened, 
and  otherwise  disguised,  smashed  all  the  win¬ 
dows,  broke  open  the  door  and  tore  everything 
to  pieces.”  The  outcome  appears  to  have  been 
more  satisfactory  to  several  members  of  the  bar 
than  to  the  unfortunate  Hebrew,  for  Governor 
Clinton  avers  that  “the  Jew  was  advised  to  go 
to  Mr.  Murray,  the  attorney,  for  his  opinion, 
who  took  a  fee,  and  advised  him  not  to  take  up 
the  case,  as  the  persons  concerned  were  related 
to  the  principal  people  of  the  town.  Mr.  Cham¬ 
bers  advised  the  like  and  told  him  he  would  be 
ruined  if  he  proceeded  against  them.  Mr. 
Smith  advised  the  same.” 

The  Jews  in  New  York  were  not  on  a  footing 
of  political  equality  with  Christians  prior  to  the 
Revolution.  By  the  first  constitution  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  adopted  in  1777,  they  were 
put  on  an  absolute  equality  with  all  other  citi¬ 
zens,  New  York  having  been  the  first  State 
actually  granting  full  religious  liberty. 

From  the  period  of  the  riot  in  1749,  to  the 
Revolution  there  was  but  little  increase  in  the 


JEWISH  PRE-REVOLUTIONARY  SETTLEMENTS.  29 

Jewish  population.  A  few  additions  were  made 
by  immigration  from  England,  but  not  sufficient 
to  counteract  the  emigration  to  Newport, 
Charleston,  and  Philadelphia.  Though  small 
they  continued  to  be  an  influential  body.  The 
restriction  acts  of  Parliament,  and  the  general 
colonial  policy  pursued  by  the  government, 
produced  a  disastrous  effect  upon  business,  and 
Hayman  Levy,  from  his  widely  extended  inter¬ 
ests,  failed  in  1768,  but  his  assignees  were 
enabled  to  discharge  the  whole  of  his  indebted¬ 
ness  with  interest.  The  great  fire  in  1776  de¬ 
stroyed  all  his  property,  yet  notwithstanding 
all,  he  carried  on  his  fur  business  on  his  own 
account  until  his  death  in  1790.  He  traded 
early  with  the  Indians,  and  a  historian  of  that 
day  claims  that  he  was  “actually  worshipped 
by  the  red  man.”  John  Jacob  Astor  acquired 
his  first  experience  in  the  fur  trade  while  in 
Levy’s  employ.  Upon  his  books  are  entries  of 
moneys  paid  to  John  Jacob  Astor,  for  beating 
furs,  at  one  dollar  a  day.  Nicholas  Low,  ances¬ 
tor  of  President  Seth  Low  of  Columbia  College, 
served  as  Levy’s  clerk  for  several  years,  and 
then  laid  the  foundation  of  his  great  fortune  in 
a  hogshead  of  rum  purchased  from  his  former 
employer,  who  besides  rendered  him  substantial 
assistance. 


30 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


Sampson  Simson  was  another  great  Jew  mer¬ 
chant  and  shipowner  at  this  period.  He  was 
distinguished  for  his  strict  integrity  and  great 
liberality,  and  his  patriotic  resistance  to  the  ag¬ 
gressive  acts  of  the  British  government.  He 
died  in  1775. 

Ephraim  Hart,  a  man  of  many  friends  and 
foremost  in  many  enterprises,  on  the  17th  of 
May,  1792,  with  twenty-one  others  organized 
the  first  board  of  stock  brokers  in  the  New  York 
Stock  Exchange.  He  was  a  State  Senator  in 
1810  and  at  the  time  of  his  death  was  a  partner 
of  John  Jacob  Astor. 

Bernard  Hart,  in  Scovill’s  “Old  Merchants 
of  New  York,”  in  view  of  his  distinguished  com¬ 
mercial  position,  social  distinction  and  great 
humanity,  is  spoken  of  as  “towering  aloft 
among  the  magnates  of  the  city  of  the  last  and 
present  generation.”  During  the  prevalence  of 
the  yellow  fever  in  New  York  in  1795  he  worked 
night  and  day  among  the  sick  and  dying,  and 
was  declared  by  a  writer  of  the  day  “An  angel 
of  mercy  in  the  awful  days  of  that  great  pesti¬ 
lence.”  He  was  the  founder  of  “The  Fairy,” 
the  parent  of  our  present  clubs.  Upon  the  for¬ 
mation  of  the  Board  of  Brokers  about  1818,  he 
was  made  secretary  of  that  body,  and  remained 
so  until  he  died  at  the  age  of  ninety-one. 


JEWISH  PRE-REVOLUTIONARY  SETTLEMENTS.  31 

Mr.  Scovill,  himself  a  merchant,  speaking  of 
the  small  number  of  Jewish  merchants  in  New 
York  in  the  early  part  of  the  present  century, 
and  the  great  contrast  at  the  period  in  which  he 
was  writing  (1868)  concludes  with  this  remark: 
“There  are  now  eighty  thousand  Israelites  in 
this  city,  and  it  is  the  high  standard  of  excel¬ 
lence  of  the  old  Israelite  merchants  of  1800  that 
has  made  the  race  occupy  the  proud  position  it 
now  holds  in  this  city  and  in  the  nation.” 

NEWPORT. 

Attracted  by  the  tolerance  of  Roger  Will¬ 
iams,  a  fugitive  himself  from  persecution,  and 
disheartened  by  Stuyvesant’s  persistent  perse¬ 
cutions,  many  Jews  made  their  way  to  New¬ 
port,  the  Rhode  Island  historians  say,  as  early 
as  1657.  In  1652  the  Colony  of  Rhode  Island 

i 

enacted  that  “all  men  of  whatever  nation  soever 
they  may  be,  that  shall  be  received  inhabitants 
of  any  of  the  towns,  shall  have  the  same  privi¬ 
leges  as  Englishmen,  any  law  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding.”  This  made  Rhode  Island  the 
place  for  all  who  sought  religious  liberty.  For 
thirty  years  preceding  our  Revolutionary  War 
Newport  was  one  of  the  principal  cities  in  the 
American  colonies,  in  commercial  importance 
ranking  with  Boston  and  Philadelphia,  for 


32 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


Edward  Eggleston  tells  ns  that  “he  was  thought 
a  bold  prophet  who  then  said  that  ‘New  York 
might  one  day  equal  Newport,’  ”  for,  about  1750, 
New  York  sent  forth  fewer  ships  than  Newport, 
and  just  half  as  many  as  Boston. 

Koger  Williams,  the  pioneer  of  religious 
liberty  in  America,  founded  his  colony  on  prin¬ 
ciples  which  unmistakably  included  the  Jews: 

“There  goes  many  a  ship  to  sea  with  many 
hundred  souls  in  one  ship,  whose  weal  and  woe 
is  common,  and  is  a  true  picture  of  a  common¬ 
wealth,  or  human  combination,  or  society.  It 
hath  fallen  out  sometimes,  that  both  Papists 
and  Protestants,  Jews  and  Turks,  may  be  em¬ 
barked  in  one  ship,  upon  which  supposal  I 
affirm,  that  all  the  liberty  of  conscience  that 
ever  I  pleaded  for  turns  upon  these. two  hinges, 
that  none  of  the  Papists,  Protestants,  Jews  or 
Turks  be  forced  to  come  to  the  ship’s  prayer  or 
worship,  or  compelled  from  their  own  particular 
prayers  or  worship,  if  they  practice  any.’’ 

In  his  famous  argument  for  the  readmission 
of  the  Jews  to  England,  he  said:  “By  the  merci¬ 
ful  assistance  of  the  Most  High,  I  have  desired 
to  labor  in  Europe,  in  America,  with  English, 
with  barbarians,  yea,  and  also  I  have  longed 
after  some  trading  with  Jews  themselves,  for 
whose  hard  measure,  I  fear  the  nations  and  Eng- 


JEWISH  PRE-REVOLUTIONARY  SETTLEMENTS.  33 

land  have  yet  a  score  to  pay.  I  desire  not  that 
liberty  to  myself,  which  I  would  not  freely  and 
impartially  weigh  out  to  all  the  consciences  of 
the  world  besides.  All  these  consciences  (yea, 
the  very  consciences  of  the  Papists,  Jews,  etc., 
as  I  have  proved  at  large  in  my  answer  to  Mas¬ 
ter  Cotton’s  washings)  ought  freely  and  impar¬ 
tially  to  be  permitted  their  several  respective 
worships,  and  what  manner  of  maintaining 
them,  they  freely  choose.” 

It  was  this  fair  treatment  of  the  Jews  under 
Roger  Williams  which  caused  the  Puritan,  Cot¬ 
ton  Mather,  in  his  “Magnalia”  to  characterize 
Newport  as  “the  common  receptacle  of  the  con¬ 
victs  of  Jerusalem  and  the  outcasts  of  the  land.” 

From  Spain,  Portugal,  Jamaica,  Holland  and 
other  places  a  most  distinguished  class  of  mer¬ 
chants  came,  making  Newport  the  formidable 
commercial  rival  of  New  York,  and  with  the  de¬ 
parture  of  the  Jews  from  Newport  it  ceased  to 
be  commercially  important.  A  volume  might  be 
written  concerning  the  Jewish  merchant 
princes  of  Newport  of  the  pre-revolutionary 
period — of  their  matchless  enterprise,  their  great 
wealth,  their  eminent  respectability,  their  re¬ 
markable  intelligence,  their  irreproachable  in¬ 
tegrity,  their  delicate  sense  of  mercantile  honor, 
and  their  unbounded  benevolence  for  all  man¬ 
kind. 


34 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


“The  Jewish  cemetery  at  Newport,”  laid  out 
in  1677,  has  been  memorialized  by  Longfellow: 

How  strange  it  seems!  These  Hebrews  in  their  graves, 

Close  by  the  street  of  this  fair  seaport  town, 

Silent  beside  the  never-silent  waves, 

At  rest  in  all  this  moving  up  and  down. 

The  trees  are  white  with  dust,  that  o’er  their  sleep 
Wave  their  broad  curtains  in  the  south-wind’s  breath, 

While  underneath  these  tents  they  keep 
The  long  mysterious  Exodus  of  Death. 

And  these  sepulchral  stones,  so  old  and  brown, 

That  pave  with  level  flags  their  burial  place, 

Seem  like  the  tablets  of  the  Law,  thrown  down 
And  broken  by  Moses  at  the  mountain’s  base. 

The  very  names  recorded  here  are  strange, 

Of  foreign  accent,  and  of  different  climes! 

Alvares  and  Rivera  interchange 
With  Abraham  and  Jacob  of  old  times. 

“  Blessed  be  God!  for  he  created  Death!  ” 

The  mourher  said,  “and  Death  is  rest  and  peace,  ” 

Then  added,  in  the  certainty  of  faith, 

“And  giveth  Life  that  nevermore  shall  cease.” 

Closed  are  the  portals  of  their  Synagogue, 

No  Psalms  of  David  now  the  silence  break, 

No  Rabbi  reads  the  ancient  Decalogue 
In  the  grand  dialect  the  Prophets  spake. 

Gone  are  the  living,  but  the  dead  remain, 

And  not  neglected;  for  a  hand  unseen, 

Scattering  its  bounty,  like  a  summer  rain, 

Still  keeps  their  graves  and  their  remembrance  green. 


JEWISH  PRE-REVOLUTIONARY  SETTLEMENTS.  35 


How  came  they  here?  What  burst  of  Christian  hate ! 

What  persecution,  merciless  and  blind, 

Drove  o’er  the  sea — that  desert  desolate — 

These  Ishmaels  and  Hagars  of  mankind? 

They  lived  in  narrow  streets  and  lanes  obscure, 

Ghetto  and  Judenstrass,  in  mirk  and  mire ; 

Taught  in  the  school  of  patience  to  endure 
The  life  of  anguish  and  the  death  of  fire. 

All  their  fives  long,  with  the  unleavened  bread 
And  bitter  herbs  of  exile  and  its  fears, 

The  wasting  famine  of  the  heart  they  fed, 

And  slaked  its  thirst  with  marsh  of  their  tears. 

Anathema  maranatha !  was  the  cry 

That  rang  from  town  to  town,  from  street  to  street ; 

At  every  gate  the  accursed  Mordecai 
Was  mocked  and  jeered,  and  spumed  by  Christian  feet. 

Pride  and  humiliation  hand  in  hand 
Walked  with  them  through  the  world  where’er  they  went  • 

Trampled  and  beaten  were  they  as  the  sand, 

And  yet  unshaken  as  the  continent. 

For  in  the  the  background  figures  vague  and  vast 
Of  patriarchs  and  of  prophets  rose  sublime, 

And  all  the  great  traditions  of  the  past 
They  saw  reflected  in  the  coming  time. 

And  thus  forever  with  reverted  look 
The  mystic  volume  of  the  world  they  read, 

Spelling  it  backward,  like  a  Hebrew  book, 

Till  fife  became  a  Legend  of  the  Dead. 

But  ah!  what  once  has  been  shall  be  no  more! 

The  groaning  earth  in  travail  and  in  pain 

Brings  forth  its  races,  but  does  not  restore, 

And  the  dead  nations  never  rise  again. 


36 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


In  August,  1790,  George  Washington  visited 
Newport  and  was  entertained  at  the  home  of 
Moses  Isaacs,  who  sided  with  the  colonies  dur¬ 
ing  the  Ke  volutionary  War.  This  visit  evoked 
the  following  letter,  signed  by  Moses  Seixas  on 
behalf  of  the  Newport  congregation : 

“Sie:  Permit  the  children  of  the  stock  of 
Abraham  to  approach  you  with  the  most  cordial 
affection  and  esteem  for  your  person  and  merit, 
and  to  join  with  our  fellow- citizens  in  welcom¬ 
ing  you  to  Newport. 

“With  pleasure  we  reflect  on  those  days  of 
difficulty  and  danger  when  the  God  of  Israel, 
who  delivered  David  from  the  peril  of  the  sword, 
shielded  your  head  in  the  day  of  battle ;  and  we 
rejoice  to  think  that  the  same  spirit  which 
rested  in  the  bosom  of  the  greatly  beloved  Dan¬ 
iel,  enabling  him  to  preside  over  the  province  of 
the  Babylonian  empire,  rests  and  ever  will  rest 
upon  you,  enabling  you  to  discharge  the 
arduous  duties  of  the  chief  magistrate  of  these 
States. 

“Deprived  as  we  hitherto  have  been  of  the  in¬ 
valuable  rights  of  free  citizens,  we  now — with 
a  deep  sense  of  gratitude  to  the  Almighty  Dis¬ 
poser  of  all  events — behold  a  government  erected 
by  the  majesty  of  the  people,  a  government 
which  to  bigotry  gives  no  sanction,  to  persecu¬ 
tion  no  assistance,  but  generously  affording  to 
all  liberty  of  conscience  and  immunities  of 


JEWISH  PRE-REVOLUTIONARY  SETTLEMENTS.  37 

citizenship,  deeming  every  one  of  whatever 
nation,  tongue,  and  language  equal  parts  of  the 
great  government  machine. 

“This  so  ample  and  extensive  Federal  Union, 
whose  base  is  philanthropy,  mutual  confidence 
and  public  virtue,  we  cannot  but  acknowledge 
to  be  the  work  of  the  great  God  who  rules  in 
the  armies  of  the  heavens  and  among  the  inhab¬ 
itants  of  the  earth,  doing  whatever  seemeth  to 
Him  good. 

“For  all  the  blessings,  civil  and  religious, 
which  we  enjoy  under  an  equal  benign  admin¬ 
istration,  we  desire  to  send  up  our  thanks  to 
the  Ancient  Days,  the  great  Preserver  of  men, 
beseeching  that  the  angel  who  conducted  our 
forefathers  through  the  wilderness  into  the 
promised  land  may  graciously  conduct  you 
through  all  difficulties  and  dangers  of  this  mor¬ 
tal  life;  and  when,  like  Joshua,  full  of  days  and 
full  of  honors,  you  are  gathered  to  your  fathers, 
may  you  be  admitted  into  the  heavenly  paradise 
to  partake  of  the  water  of  life  and  the  tree  of 
immortality. 

“Done  and  signed  by  order  of  the  Hebrew 
Congregation  in  Newport,  R.  I. 

“Moses  Seixas,  Warden. 

‘Newport,  August  17,  1790.” 

Washington’s  reply  to  the  Hebrew  congrega¬ 
tion  in  Newport,  R.  I.: 

“Gentlemen:  While  I  receive  with  much  sat- 


38 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


isf action  your  address  replete  with  expres¬ 
sions  of  esteem,  I  rejoice  in  the  opportunity  of 
assuring  you  that  I  shall  always  retain  grateful 
remembrance  of  the  cordial  welcome  I  experi¬ 
enced  on  my  visit  to  Newport  from  all  classes 
of  citizens. 

“The  reflection  on  the  days  of  difficulty  and 
danger  which  are  past  is  rendered  the  more 
sweet  from  a  consciousness  that  they  are  suc¬ 
ceeded  by  days  of  uncommon  prosperity  and 
security. 

“If  we  have  wisdom  to  make  the  best  use  of 
the  advantages  with  which  we  are  now  favored, 
we  cannot  fail,  under  the  just  administration  of 
a  good  government,  to  become  a  great  and 
happy  people. 

“The  citizens  of  the  United  States  of  America 
have  a  right  to  applaud  themselves  for  having 
given  to  mankind  examples  of  an  enlarged  and 
liberal  policy,  a  policy  worthy  of  imitation.  All 
possess  alike  liberty  of  conscience  and  immu¬ 
nities  of  citizenship. 

“It  is  now  no  more  that  toleration  is  spoken  of 
as  if  it  were  by  the  indulgence  of  one  class  of 
people  that  another  enjoyed  the  exercise  of  their 
inherent  natural  rights,  for,  happily,  the  gov¬ 
ernment  of  the  United  States,  which  gives  to 
bigotry  no  sanction,  to  persecution  no  assistance, 
requires  only  that  they  who  live  under  its  pro¬ 
tection  should  demean  themselves  as  good  citi¬ 
zens  in  giving  it  on  all  occasions  their  effectual 
support. 


JEWISH  PRE-REVOLUTIONARY  SETTLEMENTS.  39 

“It  would  be  inconsistent  with  the  frankness 
of  my  character  not  to  avow  that  I  am  pleased 
with  your  favorable  opinion  of  my  administra¬ 
tion,  and  fervent  wishes  for  my  felicity. 

“May  the  children  of  the  stock  of  Abraham 
who  dwell  in  this  land  continue  to  merit  and 
enjoy  the  good  will  of  the  other  inhabitants, 
while  every  one  shall  sit  in  safety  under  his 
own  vine  and  fig  tree,  and  there  shall  be  none 
to  make  him  afraid. 

“May  the  Father  of  all  mercies  scatter  light, 
and  not  darkness,  upon  our  paths  and  make  us 
all  in  our  several  vocations  useful  here,  and  in 
his  own  due  time  and  way,  everlastingly  happy. 

“G.  Washington.” 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

The  Jews  of  Philadelphia  distinguished  them¬ 
selves  as  warm  adherents  of  the  American  Rev¬ 
olution.  Their  patriotism  forms  an  interesting 
chapter  elsewhere  in  this  volume. 

The  first  documentary  evidence  regarding  the 
settlement  of  Jews  in  Philadelphia  dates  from 
the  year  1726,  although  it  is  known  that  Jews 
settled  in  Lancaster,  York  and  Easton  as  early 
as  1655. 

In  1662  the  Mennonites  drew  up  articles  of  as¬ 
sociation,  their  object  “being  to  establish  a 
harmonious  society  of  persons  of  different  reli¬ 
gious  sentiments,  it  was  determined  to  exclude 


40 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


from  it  ail  intractable  people,  such  as  those  in 
communion  with  the  Roman  See;  usurious 
Jews;  stiff-necked  English  Quakers;  Puritans; 
foolhardy  believers  in  the  millennium,  and  ob¬ 
stinate  modern  pretenders  to  revelation.” 

Evidently  there  were  Jews  in  Pennsylvania  at 
least  twenty-five  years  prior  to  the  landing  of 
William  Penn. 

BALTIMORE. 

Mr.  J.  H.  Hollander  finds  in  the  Provincial 
Court  Record  of  Maryland,  mention  of  one 
Mathias  de  Sousa.  Isaac  Markens  says,  “There 
resided  in  that  province  as  early  as  1658  one 
Jacob  Lumbrozo,  late  of  Lisbone,  in  the 
Kingdom  of  Portugal,  who  was  known  as  ‘ye 
Jew  doctor.’  ”  Lumbrozo  was  committed  for 
blasphemy  in  the  year  mentioned  and  in  the 
year  1663  he  was  granted  letters  of  “deniza- 
cion.”  In  1665  he  received  a  commission  to 
trade  with  the  Indians. 

Bancroft  has  referred  to  Maryland  as  among 
the  first  colonies  which  “adopted  religious  free- 

i 

dom  as  the  basis  of  the  State.”  But  its  reli¬ 
gious  freedom  was  limited  to  those  within  the 
province  who  believed  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  was 
accompanied  by  a  proviso  which  declared  that 
any  person  who  denied  the  Trinity  should  be 


JEWISH  PRE-REVOLUTIONARY  SETTLEMENTS.  41 

punished  with  death.  Maryland  was  therefore  no 
place  for  a  Jew.  Even  after  the  Revolution, 
though  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  a  Jew  was  eligible  to  any  office,  no  one 
could  hold  any  office  under  the  government  of 
Maryland  without  signing  a  declaration  that 
he  believed  in  the  Christian  religion.  In  1801, 
and  again  in  1804,  earnest  efforts  were  made  in 
the  legislature  to  repeal  this  intolerant  provis¬ 
ion,  but  failed  to  pass  upon  each  occasion,  more 
than  two -thirds  of  the  members  voting  against 
its  repeal.  In  1818,  after  a  three  days’  debate, 
the  bill  favoring  the  removal  of  these  disabili¬ 
ties  was  again  defeated  by  a  vote  twenty-four 
against  fifty. 

After  the  rejection  of  the  “Jew  Bill,”  the 
following  verses  appeared  in  the  Franklin 
Gazette,  Philadelphia: 


What!  still  reject  the  fated  race, 
Thus  long  denied  repose — 
What!  madly  striving  to  efface 
The  rights  that  heaven  bestows. 


Say,  flows  not  in  each  Jewish  vein, 
Unchecked — without  control — 

A  tide  as  pure — as  free  from  stain — 
As  warms  the  Christian’s  soul? 


42 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


Do  ye  not  yet  the  times  discern, 

That  these  shall  cease  to  roam — 

That  Shiloh,  pledged  for  their  return, 

Will  bring  his  ransomed  home? 

Be  error,  quick,  to  darkness  hurl’d ! 

No  more  with  hate  pursue — 

For  He  who  died  to  save  a  world — 

Immanuel — was  a  Jew. 

On  February  26, 1825,  the  bill  according  to  the 
Jew  his  full  civil  rights  was  passed  by  both 
houses  of  the  Legislature.  It  was  ratified  at 
the  succeeding  session  and  became  a  law. 

SAVANNAH. 

On  the  7th  of  July,  1733,  a  party  of  forty  Jews 
sailed  up  the  Savannah  River  on  a  vessel  direct 
from  London,  arriving  in  the  very  midst  of  a 
public  dinner  given  by  Oglethorpe,  who  had  as¬ 
sembled  the  colonists  for  the  purpose  of  allot¬ 
ting  to  each  settler  his  proportion  of  land,  and  of 
organizing  a  local  government. 

In  spite  of  much  determined  opposition  to  the 
newcomers,  the  benevolent  Oglethorpe  be¬ 
friended  the  Jews,  wrote  to  England  praising 
their  enterprise  and  worth,  calling  special  atten¬ 
tion  to  one  of  their  number,  Dr.  Nunes,  for  his 
attention  to  the  sick  and  other  valuable  serv¬ 
ices.  Another  of  their  number  was  Abraham  de 
Lyon,  a  horticulturist,  who  was  the  first  in  this 


JEWISH  PRE-REVOLUTIONARY  SETTLEMENTS.  43 

country  to  introduce  successfully  useful  foreign 
plants. 

It  was  the  industry  and  intelligence  of  the 
Jews,  and  the  subsequent  arrivals  of  a  few 
Moravians  and  Highlanders  from  Scotland,  who 
made  a  success  of  Oglethorpe’s  scheme,  for  it  is 
a  well-known  fact  that  the  colonists  were  idle, 
dissolute,  mutinous  and  unwilling  to  protect  the 
colony  from  the  Spaniards,  who  threatened  its 
destruction. 

With  the  departure  of  Oglethorpe  from  Geor¬ 
gia,  and  on  account  of  the  persistent  hostility 
of  the  trustees  of  the  London  Company,  sub¬ 
jected  not  only  to  civil  disabilities,  but  with  the 
rest  of  the  population,  to  unreasonable  demands, 
many  Jews  gradually  moved  from  Savannah  and 
settled  in  the  rising  city  of 

CHARLESTON. 

On  the  day  following  the  Jewish  New  Year, 
1750,  the  first  Hebrew  Congregation  was  formed 
in  Charleston.  In  1790,  Jacob  Cohen,  president  of 
the  Hebrew  Congregation,  addressed  a  lengthy 
congratulatory  letter  to  Washington  on  his  ele¬ 
vation  to  the  presidency,  in  which  among  other 
things  he  said: 

“When  laudable  ambition  had  nothing  more 


44 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


to  tempt  you  with;  when  fame  had  wearied 
itself  in  trumpeting  your  renown;  yielding  to 
the  disinterested  impulses  of  uniform  protesta¬ 
tions,  and  the  urgent  invocations  of  your  fellow  - 
citizens,  you  quitted  your  peaceful  and  pleasur¬ 
able  mansion  to  involve  yourself  in  the  cares 
and  fatigues  which  now  throng  on  you ;  and  you 
have  shown  yourself  eminently  qualified  to 
preside  at  the  helm  of  government,  as  at  the 
head  of  armies.  While  historians  of  this  and 
every  age  shall  vie  with  each  other  in  doing 
justice  to  your  character,  and  in  adorning  their 
pages  with  the  splendor  of  your  endowments, 
and  of  your  patriotic  and  noble  achievements; 
and  while  they  cull  and  combine  the  various 
good  and  shining  qualities  of  the  pagan  and 
modern  heroes  to  display  your  character,  we, 
and  our  posterity,  will  not  cease  to  chronicle  and 
commemorate  you,  with  Moses,  Joshua,  Daniel, 
Gideon,  Samuel,  David,  Maccabeus,  and  other 
holy  men  of  old,  who  were  raised  up  by  God  for 
the  deliverance  of  our  nation,  His  people,  from 
their  oppression.  May  the  Great  Being,  our 
universal  Lord,  continue  propitious  to  you  and 
to  the  United  States;  perfect  and  give  increase 
and  duration  of  prosperity  to  the  great  empire 
of  which  He  has  made  you  so  instrumental  in 
producing.  May  He  grant  you  health  to  preside 
over  the  same,  until  He  shall,  after  length  of 
days,  call  you  to  eternal  felicity,  which  will  be 
the  reward  of  your  virtues  in  the  next,  as  lasting 
glory  must  be  in  this  world.” 


JEWISH  PRE-REVOLUTIONARY  SETTLEMENTS.  45 

In  the  fire  of  1838  the  original  of  Washing¬ 
ton’s  reply  was  destroyed  and  no  copy  can  be 
obtained.  It  maybe  interesting  in  this  connec¬ 
tion  to  add  the  remaining  correspondence  be¬ 
tween  Hebrew  citizens  and  George  Washington. 

“The  address  of  the  Hebrew  Congregation  of 
Savannah,  Georgia,  to  George  Washington,  the 
first  President  of  the  United  States,”  presented 
by  Mr.  Jackson,  one  of  the  representatives  from 
Georgia : 

“Sir:  We  have  long  been  anxious  of  congrat¬ 
ulating  you  on  your  appointment  by  unanimous 
approbation  to  the  presidential  dignity  of  this 
country  and  of  testifying  our  unbounded  confi¬ 
dence  in  your  integrity  and  unblemished  vir¬ 
tue.  Yet,  however  exalted  the  station  you  now 
fill,  it  is  still  not  equal  to  the  merit  of  your 
heroic  services  through  an  arduous  and  danger¬ 
ous  conflict  which  has  embosomed  you  in  the 
hearts  of  her  citizens. 

“Our  eccentric  situation,  added  to  a  diffidence 
founded  on  the  most  profound  respect,  has  thus 
long  prevented  our  address;  yet  the  delay  has 
realized  anticipation,  given  us  an  opportunity  of 
presenting  our  grateful  acknowledgments  for 
the  benediction  of  Heaven  through  the  magna¬ 
nimity  of  federal  influence  and  the  equity  of 
your  administration. 

“Your  unexampled  liberality  and  extensive 
philanthropy  have  dispelled  that  cloud  of  big- 


46 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


otry  and  superstition  which  has  long,  as  a  veil, 
shaded  religion  —  unriveted  the  fetters  of 
enthusiasm — enfranchised  us  with  all  the  privi¬ 
leges  and  immunities  of  free  citizens,  and  ini¬ 
tiated  us  into  the  grand  mass  of  legislative 
mechanism.  By  example  you  have  taught  us 
to  endure  the  ravages  of  war  with  manly  forti¬ 
tude,  and  to  enjoy  the  blessings  of  peace  with 
reverence  to  the  Deity  and  with  benignity  and 
love  to  our  fellow-creatures. 

“May  the  Great  Author  of  the  world  grant 
you  all  happiness,  an  uninterrupted  series  of 
health,  addition  of  years  to  the  number  of  your 
days,  and  a  continuance  of  guardianship  to  that 
freedom  which  under  auspices  of  Heaven  your 
magnanimity  and  wisdom  have  given  these 
States. 

“Levi  Sheftall,  President. 

“In  behalf  of  the  Hebrew  Congregations.” 

To  which  the  President  was  pleased  to  return 
the  following  reply : 

(Printed  in  Jared  Sparks’  Collection,  vol.  xii., 
p.  185.) 

“To  the  Hebrew  Congregation  of  the  city  of 
Savannah,  Georgia. 

“Gentlemen:  I  thank  you  with  great  sin¬ 
cerity  for  your  congratulations  on  my  appoint¬ 
ment  to  the  office  which  I  have  the  honor  to 
hold  by  the  unanimous  choice  of  my  fellow- 
citizens,  and  especially  the  expressions  you  are 


JEWISH  PRE-REVOLUTIONARY  SETTLEMENTS.  47 

pleased  to  use  in  testifying  the  confidence  that 
is  reposed  in  me  by  your  congregation. 

“As  the  delay  which  has  naturally  intervened 
between  my  election  and  your  address  has 
afforded  me  an  opportunity  for  appreciating  the 
merits  of  the  federal  government  and  for  com¬ 
municating  your  sentiments  of  its  administra¬ 
tion,  I  have  rather  to  express  my  satisfaction 
rather  than  regret  at  a  circumstance  which 
demonstrates  (upon  experiment)  your  attach¬ 
ment  to  the  former  as  well  as  approbation  of 
the  latter. 

“I  rejoice  that  a  spirit  of  liberality  and  phi¬ 
lanthropy  is  much  more  prevalent  than  it  for¬ 
merly  was  among  the  enlightened  nations  of  the 
earth,  and  that  your  brethren  will  benefit  there¬ 
by  in  proportion  as  it  shall  become  still  more 
extensive;  happily  the  people  of  the  United 
States  have,  in  many  instances,  exhibited  ex¬ 
amples  worthy  of  imitation,  the  salutary  in¬ 
fluence  of  which  will  doubtless  extend  much 
further  if  gratefully  enjoying  those  blessings  of 
peace  which  (under  the  favor  of  Heaven)  have 
been  attained  by  fortitude  in  war,  they  shall 
conduct  themselves  with  reverence  to  the  Deity 
and  charity  toward  their  fellow-creatures. 

“May  the  same  wonder-working  Deity,  who 
long  since  delivered  the  Hebrews  from  their 
Egyptian  oppressors,  planted  them  in  a  prom¬ 
ised  land,  whose  providential  agency  has  lately 
been  conspicuous  in  establishing  these  United 
States  as  an  independent  nation,  still  continue 


48 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


to  water  them  with  the  dew  of  heaven  and  make 
the  inhabitants  of  every  denomination  partici¬ 
pate  in  the  temporal  and  spiritual  blessings  of 
that  people  whose  God  is  Jehovah. 

“G.  Washington.” 

The  address  of  the  Hebrew  Congregations  in 
the  cities  of  Philadelphia,  New  York,  Richmond, 
and  Charleston,  to  the  President  of  the  United 
States: 

“Sib:  It  is  reserved  for  you  to  unite  in  affec¬ 
tion  for  your  character  and  person  every  politi¬ 
cal  and  religious  denomination  of  men,  and  in 
this  will  the  Hebrew  congregations  aforesaid 
yield  to  no  class  of  their  fellow-citizens. 

“We  have  hitherto  been  prevented  by  various 
circumstances  peculiar  to  our  situation  from 
adding  our  congratulations  to  those  which  the 
rest  of  America  have  offered  on  your  elevation 
to  the  chair  of  the  federal  government.  Deign, 
then,  illustrious  sir,  to  accept  this  our  homage. 

“The  wonders  which  the  Lord  of  Hosts  hath 
worked  in  the  days  of  our  forefathers  have 
taught  us  to  observe  the  greatness  of  His  wis¬ 
dom  and  His  might  through  the  events  of  the 
late  glorious  revolution;  and,  while  we  humble 
ourselves  at  His  footstool  in  thanksgiving  and 
praise  for  the  blessing  of  His  deliverance,  we 
acknowledge  you,  the  leader  of  American 
armies,  as  His  chosen  and  beloved  servant.  But 
not  to  your  sword  alone  is  present  happiness  to 


JEWISH  PRE-REVOLUTIONARY  SETTLEMENTS.  49 

be  ascribed;  that,  indeed,  opened  the  way  to 
freedom,  but  never  was  it  perfectly  secure  until 
your  hand  gave  birth  to  the  Federal  Constitution 
and  you  renounced  the  joys  of  retirement  to 
seal  by  your  administration  in  peace  what  you 
had  achieved  in  war. 

“To  the  eternal  God,  who  is  thy  refuge,  we 
commit  in  our  prayers  the  care  of  thy  precious 
life;  and  when,  full  of  years,  thou  shalt  be 
gathered  unto  thy  people,  ‘thy  righteousness 
shall  go  before  thee,’  and  we  shall  remember, 
amid  our  regret, ‘that  the  Lord  hath  set  apart 
the  godly  for  Himself,’  whilst  thy  name  and  thy 

virtues  will  remain  an  indelible  memorial  on  our 
minds. 

“For  and  in  behalf  and  under  the  authority 
of  the  several  congregations  aforesaid. 

“Manuel  Josephson. 

“Philadelphia,  December  13,  1790.” 

The  President  was  pleased  to  reply  to  the 
foregoing  as  follows: 

“Answer:  To  the  Hebrew  Congregations  in 
the  cities  of  Philadelphia,  New  York,  Charles¬ 
ton,  and  Richmond: 

“Gentlemen:  The  liberality  of  sentiment  to¬ 
ward  each  other,  which  marks  every  political 
and  religious  denomination  of  men  in  this  coun¬ 
try,  stands  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  na¬ 
tions. 

“The  affection  of  such  a  people  is  a  treasure 
beyond  the  reach  of  calculation,  and  the  re- 


50 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


peated  proofs  which  my  fellow-citizens  have 
given  of  their  attachment  to  me  and  approbation 
of  my  doings,  form  the  purest  source  of  my 
temporal  felicity.  The  affectionate  expressions 
of  your  address  again  excite  my  gratitude  and 
receive  my  warmest  acknowledgment. 

“The  power  and  goodness  of  the  Almighty, 
so  strongly  manifested  in  the  events  of  our  late 
glorious  Kevolution,  and  His  kind  interposition 
in  our  behalf,  have  been  no  less  visible  in  the 
establishment  of  our  present  equal  government. 
In  war  He  directed  the  sword,  and  in  peace  He 
has  ruled  in  our  councils.  My  agency  in  both 
has  been  guided  by  the  best  intentions  and  a 
sense  of  duty  I  owe  to  my  country. 

“And  as  my  exertions  have  hitherto  been 
amply  rewarded  by  the  approbation  of  my  fel¬ 
low-citizens,  I  shall  endeavor  to  deserve  a  con¬ 
tinuance  of  it  by  my  future  conduct. 

“May  the  same  temporal  and  eternal  bless¬ 
ings  which  you  implore  for  me  rest  upon  your 
congregations. 

“G.  Washington.” 


The  Number  and  Distribution  of  the  Jews. 


The  world  has  by  this  time  discovered  that  it  is  impossible  to 
destroy  the  Jews.  The  attempt  to  extirpate  them  has  been  made 
under  the  most  favorable  auspices  and  on  the  largest  scale ;  the 
most  considerable  means  that  man  could  command  have  been 
pertinaciously  applied  to  this  object  for  the  longest  period  of  re¬ 
corded  time.  Egyptian  pharaohs,  Assyrian  kings,  Roman 
emperors,  Scandinavian  crusaders,  Gothic  princes  and  holy  in¬ 
quisitors  have  alike  devoted  their  energies  to  the  fulfillment  of 
this  common  purpose.  Expatriation,  exile,  captivity,  confisca¬ 
tion,  torture  on  the  most  ingenious  and  massacre  on  the  most 
extensive  scale;  a  curious  system  of  degrading  customs  and 
debasing  laws  which  would  have  broken  the  heart  of  another 
people,  have  been  tried  and  in  vain.  The  Jews,  after  all  this 
havoc,  probably  more  numerous  at  this  date  than  they  were 
during  the  reign  of  Solomon  the  Wise,  are  found  in  all  lands,  and 
prospering  in  most.  All  which  proves  that  it  is  in  vain  for  man 
to  attempt  to  baffle  the  inexorable  law  of  Nature,  which  has 
decreed  that  a  superior  race  shall  never  be  destroyed  or  absorbed 
by  an  inferior,— Lord  Beaconsfield. 


NUMBER  AND  DISTRIBUTION  OF  THE  JEWS.  53 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  NUMBER  AND  DISTRIBUTION  OF  THE  JEWS. 

Two  countries  only  in  Europe  deny  to  Jews 
the  rights  accorded  to  Christians;  but  these 
two  countries,  Russia,  with  4,500,000  Jews — a 
legacy  from  Poland,  which  toward  the  end  of 
the  Middle  Ages  became  the  center  of  Israel — 
and  Roumania  with  300,000,  contain  more  Jews 
than  all  the  rest  of  Europe  together.  So  that 
nearly  half  of  the  descendants  of  Abraham  are 
still  subject  to  special  laws  and  denied  the 
rights  of  citizenship. 

Austro-Hungary  has  1,860,186  Jews,  Ger¬ 
many,  567,884,  of  whom  two-thirds  inhabit  the 
Kingdom  of  Prussia.  England  and  Wales,  97,- 
350;  Scotland,  2,060;  Ireland,  1,779;  Australia, 
15,268;  Canada,  6,414;  Trinidad,  31;  Barba- 
does,  21;  Cape  Colony,  3,009;  India,  17,185; 
Aden,  2,826;  Gibraltar,  1,000;  Hong  Kong,  143; 
Straits  Settlement,  535;  Malta,  173;  Cyprus, 
127;  making  a  grand  total  in  the  British  Empire 
of  148,017.  Holland,  97,324,  one-half  of  whom 
are  to  be  found  in  Amsterdam;  France,  72,000, 


54 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW- 


of  whom  three-fourths  live  in  Paris;  Italy,  50,- 
000,  of  whom  the  majority  inhabit  the  northern 
and  middle  portions  of  the  country.  There  are 
8,069  Jews  in  Switzerland;  Belgium,  3,000; 
Denmark,  4,080;  Sweden,  3,042;  Norway, 
hardly  any;  Luxembourg,  1,000;  Spain,  2,500, 
and  Portugal,  300,  where,  prior  to  the  fifteenth 
century,  there  lived  perhaps  half  a  million  Israel¬ 
ites. 

In  Eastern  Europe,  in  addition  to  Boumania, 
there  are  Turkey  with  120,000;  Greece,  5,792, 
most  of  them  in  Corfu;  Bulgaria,  20,000;  Ser- 
via,  4,652.  In  Asia,  the  cradle  of  their  race,  we 
find,  in  Turkey  in  Asia,  150,000;  Persia,  30,000; 
Russia  in  Asia,  47,000;  Turkestan,  Afghani¬ 
stan,  140,000;  and  China,  2,000. 

In  Africa,  which  they  had  colonized  before  the 
Christian  Era,  we  find  25,000  in  Egypt;  Abysin- 
nian  Falashas,  300,000;  Tripoli,  60,000;  Tunis, 
55,000;  Algeria  and  Sahara,  60,000;  Morocco, 
200,000;  South  Africa,  20,000. 

G.  Bie  Ravndal,  United  States  Consul  at 
Beirut,  reports  to  the  Department  of  State  that 
out  of  a  total  population  in  Palestine  of  some 
200,000,  about  40,000  are  Jews,  as  against  14,000 
twenty  years  ago.  In  Jerusalem  there  are  22,000 
Jews,  half  of  whom  have  immigrated  from  Eu¬ 
rope  and  America,  and  are  called  Aschkenazim 


NUMBER  AND  DISTRIBUTION  OF  THE  JEWS.  55 

to  distinguish  them  from  the  Spanish  and  Orien¬ 
tal  Israelites,  the  Sephardim.  After  mentioning 
in  detail  a  number  of  colonies,  which  have  been 
established  during  the  last  twenty  years,  and 
stating  the  present  prosperous  condition  of  most 
of  them,  the  report  says: 

“Entirely  irrespective  of  whether  or  not  the 
Zionists  will  succeed  in  awakening  in  the  Jew¬ 
ish  people  a  national  spirit  and  forming  a  Ju¬ 
dean  monarchy  or  republic,  with  its  parliament 
in  Jerusalem  and  its  representation  in  foreign 
capitals,  the  present  agitation  makes  for  the 
developments  a  country  which  is  but  a  shadow 
of  its  former  self,  and  which  will  generously 
respond  to  modern  influences.  The  Sultan 
seems  quite  disposed  to  grant  railway,  harbor 
and  other  franchises,  and  it  is  possible  that  the 
new  Jewish  Colonial  Bank,  the  organization  of 
which  was  decided  upon  in  Basel,  will  be  per¬ 
mitted,  under  certain  guarantees,  io  play  an 
important  part  in  the  industrial  advancement 
and  growth  of  Palestine.  The  movement  is 
furthermore  bringing  out  new  qualities  in  the 
Jews  residing  in  Palestine.  They  are  no  longer 
content  with  studying  the  Talmud  and  living  on 
charity,  but  are  waking  to  the  fact,  as  the 
Hebrew  would  put  it,  that  to  till  the  ground  is 
worship  of  God. 


56 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


“I  think  I  am  justified  in  saying  that  the 
prospects  are  brighter  than  ever  for  the  Jews  in 
Palestine  and  for  Palestine  itself.  European 
influence  has  obtained  a  foothold  in  the  country, 
and  the  tide  of  modern  ideas  cannot  be  long 
debarred.  Only  four  or  five  weeks  ago  an  Eng¬ 
lish  company  announced  its  determination  to 
build  a  broad-gauge  railway  from  the  sea  at 
Haifa  through  the  very  heart  of  Samaria  and 
Galilee  to  Damascus  and  on  to  Bagdad,  and 
active  operations  have  already  commenced.” 

In  the  United  States  there  are  937,800  Jews, 
and  in  all  the  world  to-day  there  are  probably  11  ,- 
000,000  of  Jews,  4,000,000  more  than  there  were 
in  the  time  of  David.  At  no  period  was  Israel  so 
widely  scattered.  Never  before  have  there  ex¬ 
isted  so  many  Jews.  Everywhere  they  are  on 
the  increase.  As  they  are  growing  in  numbers 
and  importance,  jealousy  and  hatred  against 
them  increase.  And  what  produces  jealousy? 
The  excellence  of  another.  Jealousy  is  a  high, 
if  not  a  gracious  compliment. 


The  Growth  of  Jewish  Population  in  the 

United  States. 


There  is  a  river  in  the  ocean ;  in  the  severest  droughts  it  never 
fails,  and  in  the  mightiest  floods  it  never  overflows.  The  Gulf  of 
Mexico  is  its  fountain,  and  its  mouth  is  in  the  Arctic  seas.  It  is  the 
Gulf  Stream.  There  is  in  the  world  no  other  such  majestic  flow 
of  waters.  Its  current  is  more  rapid  than  the  Mississippi  or  the 
Amazon,  and  its  volume  more  than  a  thousand  times  greater. 
Its  waters,  as  far  out  from  the  gulf  as  the  Carolina  coasts,  are  of 
an  indigo  blue ;  they  are  so  distinctly  marked  that  their  line  of 
junction  with  the  common  sea  water  may  be  traced  by  the  eye. 
Often  one-lialf  of  a  vessel  may  be  perceived  floating  in  Gulf  Stream 
water,  while  the  other  half  is  in  common  water  of  the  sea,  so 
sharp  is  the  line  and  such  the  want  of  affinity  between  those 
waters,  and  such  too  the  reluctance,  so  to  speak,  on  the  part  of 
those  of  the  Gulf  Stream  to  mingle  with  the  common  water  of 
the  sea. — Prof.  M.  F.  Maury. 

This  curious  phenomenon  in  the  physical  world  has  its  counter¬ 
part  in  the  moral.  There  is  a  lonely  river  in  the  midst  of  the 
ocean  of  mankind.  The  mightiest  floods  of  human  teniptation 
have  never  caused  it  to  overflow  and  the  fiercest  fires  of  human 
cruelty,  though  seven  times  heated  in  the  furnace  of  religious 
bigotry,  have  never  caused  it  to  dry  up,  although  its  waves  for 
two  thousand  years  have  rolled  crimson  with  the  blood  of  its 
martyrs.  Its  fountain  is  in  the  gray  dawn  of  the  world’s  history, 
and  its  mouth  is  somewhere  in  the  shadows  of  eternity.  It  too 
refuses  to  mingle  with  the  surrounding  waves,  and  the  line  which 
divides  its  restless  billows  from  the  common  waters  of  humanity 
is  also  plainly  visible  to  the  eye.  It  is  the  Jewish  race. — Zebulon 
B.  Vance. 


GROWTH  OF  JEWISH  POPULATION. 


59 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  GROWTH  OF  JEWISH  POPULATION  IN  THE 

UNITED  STATES. 

At  the  time  of  the  Revolution  the  Jewish 
population  in  the  United  States  was  about  700 
families.  The  first  census,  1790,  gave  the  number 
of  Jewish  inhabitants  as  about  3,000.  Mordecai 
M.  Noah,  in  1818,  estimated  the  Jewish  popu¬ 
lation  of  the  United  States  at  3,000.  After  the 
Revolution  many  returned  to  England,  others 
went  to  the  West  Indies.  Isaac  Harby  and 
Solomon  Etting,  in  1826,  estimated  that  there 
were  not  over  6,000  Jews  in  the  United  States. 
The  “American  Almanac’’  of  1840  gives  the 
number  of  Jews  in  the  United  States  as  15,000. 
Berk’s  “History  of  the  Jews,’’  published  in 
1848,  makes  it  appear  that  there  were  then 
“50,000  Jews  in  the  United  States,  12,000  resid¬ 
ing  in  New  York  and  4,000  in  Philadelphia.’’  In 
1846  Rev.  Isaac  Leeser  placed  the  figures  for 
New  York  at  10,000,  Philadelphia,  1,800,  and 
Baltimore,  1,500. 

Throughout  the  period  of  the  Napoleonic 
wars  many  obstacles  hindered  the  departure  of 


60 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


the  German  Jews,  and  for  a  time  afterward  in 
view  of  the  great  political  concessions  which 
they  gained  from  the  German  rulers  in  return 
for  their  valor  and  heroic  sacrifices  of  life  and 
substance  for  the  Fatherland,  there  was  little 
immigration.  It  was  not  until  the  beginning  of 
steam  navigation  on  the  Atlantic  that  any  con¬ 
siderable  Jewish  immigration  was  made  to  this 
country. 

According  to  the  report  made  May  28,  1877, 
by  the  Board  of  Delegates  of  American  Israel¬ 
ites,  with  the  assistance  of  the  Union  of  Ameri¬ 
can  Hebrew  Congregations,  there  was  then  a 
total  Jewish  population  in  the  United  States  of 
189,576.  In  September,  1880,  the  Union  of 
American  Hebrew  Congregations  published  the 
following  statistics  of  the  Jews  in  the  United 
States: 


State  or  Territory. 

Population. 

State  or  Territory. 

Population. 

Alabama . 

. .  2,045 

Maryland . 

.  337 

Arizona . 

48 

Baltimore . 

.  10,000 

Arkansas . 

. .  1,466 

Massachusetts .... 

.  8,500 

California . 

..  18,580 

Michigan . 

.  3,233 

Colorado . 

422 

Minnesota . 

.  414 

Connecticut . 

..  1,492 

Mississippi . 

.  2,262 

Dakota . . . . 

19 

Missouri . 

.  7,380 

Delaware . 

585 

Montana . 

.  131 

District  of  Columbia. . 

..  1,508 

Nebraska . 

.  222 

Florida . 

772 

Nevada . 

.  780 

Georgia . 

..  2,704 

New  Hampshire . . 

.  150 

Idaho . 

85 

New  Jersey . 

.  5,593 

Illinois . 

. .  12,625 

New  Mexico . 

.  108 

Indiana . 

. .  3,381 

New  York  State. . . 

.  20,565 

GROWTH  OF  JEWISH  POPULATION.  61 


State  or  Territory. 

Population. 

State  or  Territory. 

Population. 

Iowa . 

.  1,245 

New  York  City. . . 

.  60,000 

Kansas . 

.  819 

North  Carolina.  . . 

.  820 

Kentucky . 

.  3,602 

Ohio . 

.  6,581 

Louisiana . 

.  7,538 

Oregon . 

.  868 

Maine . 

.  500 

Pennsylvania . 

.  6,079 

Philadelphia . 

.  12,000 

Virginia . 

.  2,506 

Rhode  Island . 

.  1,000 

Washington  Territory . .  145 

South  Carolina. . . . 

.  1,415 

West  Virginia  . . . . 

.  511 

Tennessee . 

.  3,751 

Wisconsin . 

.  2,559 

Texas . 

.  3,300 

Wyoming . 

. . .  .  40 

Utah . 

....  258 

Vermont . 

.  120 

Total . 

. 221,064 

According  to  the  conservative  estimate  of 
David  Sulzberger,  the  following  is  the  Jewish 
population  of  the  United  States  in  1897: 


Alabama . 

. .  6,000 

Montana . 

.  ..  2,500 

Arizona . 

. .  2,000 

Nebraska . 

.  . .  2,000 

Arkansas  . 

.  4,000 

Nevada . 

....  2,500 

California . 

. .  35,000 

New  Hampshire. . . . 

. ...  1,000 

Colorado . 

.  1,500 

New  Jersey . 

. ...  25,000 

Connecticut . 

. .  6,000 

New  Mexico  . 

....  2,000 

N.  and  S.  Dakota . 

.  3,500 

New  York . 

....350,000 

Delaware . 

.  3,000 

North  Carolina . 

....  12,000 

District  of  Columbia . . . 

. .  3,500 

Ohio . 

. ...  50,000 

Florida . 

.  2,500 

Oregon . 

....  6,000 

Georgia . 

. .  7,000 

Pennsylvania . 

.  ..  85,000 

Idaho . 

. .  2,000 

Rhode  Island . 

. ...  3,500 

Illinois . 

. .  85,000 

South  Carolina.  . . . 

. . . .  8,000 

Indiana . 

. .  15,000 

Tennessee . 

. ...  15,000 

Iowa . 

. .  5,000 

Texas . 

. ...  12,000 

Kansas . 

. .  3,500 

Utah . 

. ...  5,000 

Kentucky . 

. .  12,000 

Vermont . 

. ...  1,000 

Louisiana . 

..  20,000 

Virginia . 

. ...  18,000 

Maine . 

..  1,000 

Washington . 

. . . .  2,800 

Maryland . 

.  35,000 

West  Virginia . 

. ...  6,000 

Massachusetts . 

..  20,000 

Wisconsin . 

. ...  10,000 

Michigan . 

Minnesota . 

. .  9,000 
..  6,000 

Wyoming . 

....  1,000 

Mississippi . 

Missouri . 

.  5,000 

.  25,000 

Total . 

....937,800 

Patriotism  of  the  European  Jew. 


When  men  unite  together  in  society  they  combine  for  the  pro¬ 
motion  of  common  objects;  they  are  bound  to  make  common 
exertions  to  sustain  common  burdens,  and,  along  with  the  liabil¬ 
ity  to  these  exertions  and  burdens  for  the  attainment  of  that  com¬ 
mon  purpose,  they  should  be  equally  eligible  to  common  honors 
and  privileges.  It  seems  to  me  that,  as  well  on  the  grounds  of 
expediency  as  on  high  moral  grounds,  this  principle  should  be 
enforced.  Let  society  be  formed  upon  what  principle  it  may, 
whether  the  rule  of  association  be  drawn  from  natural  religion, 
or  revealed  religion,  we  are  bound  together  by  every  tie,  and  by 
every  consideration  of  justice,  to  take  heed  that  our  own  par¬ 
ticular  differences  of  opinion  should  not  be  unnecessarily  ob¬ 
truded,  and  that,  therefore,  offices,  situations,  and  privileges 
which  do  not  involve  the  points  on  which  such  differences  turn, 
should  be  common  property.  To  deny  privileges  to  any  class  of 
persons,  on  the  ground  that  they  are  a  small  minority,  is  oppres¬ 
sion  ;  to  deny  them  on  the  ground  of  a  particular  religious  creed 
is  persecution,  and  both  oppression  and  persecution  are  alike  for¬ 
bidden  by  the  religion  we  profess — a  religion  which  is  founded 
on  the  principle  of  peace  and  good-will  to  all  mankind. — Robert 
Grant,  when  in  1833,  he  urged  upon  the  House  of  Commons  the 
removal  of  all  Jews’  disabilities  which  then  existed. 


PATRIOTISM  OF  THE  EUROPEAN  JEW. 


65 


CHAPTER  IV. 

PATRIOTISM  OF  THE  EUROPEAN  JEW. 

One  of  the  gravest  charges  ever  brought 
against  the  Jew  is  that  he  is  not  and  cannot  be 
a  patriot.  A  distinguished  English  writer 
some  years  ago  declared:  “The  Jews  have  now 
been  everywhere  made  voters;  to  make  them 
patriots  while  they  remain  genuine  Jews  is  be¬ 
yond  the  legislator’s  power.” 

In  a  Catechism  for  the  Jewish  youth  of  Eng¬ 
land,  written  by  Ascher,  which  I  presume  is 
yet  in  use  there,  we  find  the  following: 

“Has  the  Jew  a  fatherland  besides  Jeru¬ 
salem?” 

“Yes,  the  country  wherein  he  is  bred  and 
born,  and  in  which  he  has  the  liberty  to  practice 
his  religion,  and  where  he  is  allowed  to  carry 
on  traffic  and  trade,  and  to  enjoy  all  the  advan¬ 
tages  and  protection  of  the  law,  in  common 
with  the  citizens  of  other  creeds,  this  country 
the  Israelite  is  bound  to  acknowledge  as  his 
fatherland,  to  the  benefit  of  which  he  must  do 
his  best  to  contribute.  The  sovereign  who 


66 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


rules  over  this  land  is  (after  God)  his  sovereign; 
its  laws,  so  long  as  they  are  not  contradictory 
to  the  Divine  Law,  are  also  the  Israelite’s  laws; 
and  the  duties  of  his  fellow-citizens  are  also  his 
duties.” 

This  catechism  was  written  by  a  “strict”  Jew 
and  for  the  “genuine”  Jewish  youth. 

Until  very  recently,  during  the  present  cen¬ 
tury,  the  Jews  were  rarely  ever  permitted  the 
opportunity  of  fighting  for  their  country,  but 
whenever  they  have  been. allowed  to  enter  the 
lists  they  have  proved  that  the  contumely 
heaped  upon  them  had  not  quenched  their  man¬ 
hood.  What  spiritual  courage  it  required  for 
the  whole  race  to  survive  at  all  during  fifteen 
centuries  of  the  most  relentless  and  diabolical 
persecutions  and  burnings  at  the  stake  which 
might  have  been  avoided  by  the  simple  act  of 
baptism !  With  historical  accuracy  and  burn¬ 
ing  indignation,  Dr.  Isaac  Schwab  thus  por¬ 
trays  the  cruelty  which  the  Jew  suffered,  and 
the  ignominy  heaped  upon  him  in  the  Middle 
Ages: 

“The  best  meaning  emperors  and  citizens 
were  generally  unable  to  prevent  and  some¬ 
times  even  to  suppress  these  persecutions.  The 
‘holy  warriors’  gave  the  Jews  the  alternative  of 
conversion  or  death,  or  simply  plundered  them 


PATRIOTISM  OF  THE  EUROPEAN  JEW.  67 

under  the  pretext  of  their  being  outlawed  ene¬ 
mies  of  Christ.  Count  Emicho  had  in  the  first 
crusade  alone  appropriated  12,000  ducats  of  the 
Jews’  money.  The  Archbishop  of  Mayence 
himself  was  believed  to  have  shared  in  the 
spoils  of  the  then  plundered  Jews  of  that  city. 
Some  of  his  near  relatives  were  on  solid  testi¬ 
mony  held  to  account  for  participating  in  that 
robbery  by  Henry  IV.,  who,  on  his  return  to 
the  empire  in  1098  was  earnestly  intent  on  all 
possible  restitution  being  made  to  the  Jews  who 
had  lost  so  much  in  the  bloody  raids,  or  were 
the  heirs  of  the  victims  two  years  before. 
Even  the  property  of  the  Jews  yielding  to  con¬ 
version  forced  on  them  in  these  benighted 
times  was  not  always  safe.  Some  kings  and 
princes  losing  through  their  conversion  the  reg¬ 
ular  Jewish  revenue,  sought  to  indemnify  them¬ 
selves  by  confiscation  of  their  property  though 
they  were  now  nominal  Christians.  This  was  a 
short  and  easy  financial  process,  as  was  that  of 
the  Kings  John  and  Henry  III.,  of  England,  the 
former  imprisoning  his  Jews  to  force  them  to 
surrender  their  money,  from  one  ot  whom  were 
taken  seven  teeth,  one  on  each  subsequent  day, 
till  on  the  eighth  he  ransomed  the  remainder  of 
his  teeth  at  the  price  demanded,  ten  thousand 
marks  of  silver;  the  latter  extorting  ten  thou- 


68 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


sand  marks  from  the  Jews  by  making  ten  of 
their  richest  men  bond  for  their  payment. 

“The  Christian  Council  held  under  the  aus¬ 
pices  of  the  Frank  and  Visigoth  monarchs  sowed 
the  seed  of  intolerance  against  the  Jews  which 
soon  grew  into  a  rank  crop.  Greedy  potentates, 
fanatics  and  rapacious  masses,  and  demoralized 
priests  were  eagerly  gathering  it.  They  drove 
the  Jews  out  of  the  pale  of  society,  nay,  treated 
them  as  outcasts  of  humanity  deserving  no 
human  sympathy.  The  Christian  law  of  the 
Middle  Ages  forbade  the  Jews  to  hold  Christian 
servants.  When  they  had  to  take  an  oath  in 
court,  they  were  compelled  to  stand  on  a  hog- 
skin,  repeating  after  the  magistrate  the  most 
abominable  execrations  as  a  threat  for  perjury. 
To  be  outwardly  known  from  Christians,  as 
their  complexions  were  often  deceiving,  they 
had  to  wear  badges  on  their  clothes,  as  their 
common  “badge  of  sufferance”  alone  had  not 
sufficed  to  distinguish  them  from  others. 

“The  Council  at  Narbonne,  in  1227,  decreed 
it  should  be  of  cloth  in  the  form  of  a  wheel, 
and  the  synod  of  Augsburg,  in  1453,  was  seri¬ 
ously  engaged  in  ordering  separate  badges  for 
both  sexes,  a  round  rag  of  saffron  color  about 
the  breast  for  the  male,  and  two  grayish  ruffles 
for  the  female  Jews.  Those  of  England  had  to 

o 


PATRIOTISM  OF  THE  EUROPEAN  JEW.  69 

wear  a  yellow  badge,  by  virtue  of  an  act  of  par¬ 
liament  under  Edward  I.  They  were  not  long 
adorned  with  it,  however,  that  generous  king 
expelling  them  from  his  domain  in  the  year 
1290. 

“Another  mark  of  distinction  was  the  Jew 
hat.  The  synod  of  Vienna,  in  1267,  and  of  Salz¬ 
burg,  1419,  made  it  a  penal  law  for  the  Jews  to 
wear  cornered  hats,  that  they  might  be  known 
distinctly  from  Christians.  Susskind  von  Trim- 
berg,  the  homeless  Jewish  minstrel  of  the  thir¬ 
teenth  century,  alludes  in  his  poems,  as  De- 
litzsch  supposes,  to  this  monstrous  outgrowth 
of  Christian  intolerance. 

“The  German  emperors  and  the  kings  and 
princes  of  Christian  Europe  assuming  the 
ownership  of  their  dependent  Jews,  they  were 
from  time  to  time  presented  by  them  as  gifts, 
or  mortgaged  like  inanimate  property  to  other 
rulers  or  imperial  cities.  Every  public  calamity 
was  laid  to  their  charge,  even  the  pestilence  of 
1348-50  that  ravaged  fearfully  throughout 
Europe.  They  were  falsely  accused  of  having 
poisoned  the  wells,  and  thereby  caused  that 
fell  plague.  Innumerable  innocent  Jews  were 
then  murdered  or  publicly  burned  at  the  stake; 
their  princely  protectors  could  not  overawe  the 
excited  populace.  In  the  age  of  reformation, 


70 


'  JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


when  a  broader  intelligence  began  to  spread 
among  the  masses,  releasing  their  benumbed 
minds  from  the  bane  of  religious  ignorance,  the 
wholesale  massacres  and  pillages  of  the  Jews 
ceased,  to  give  way  to  their  wholesale  expul¬ 
sions  from  their  oldest  settlements.” 

You  can  hardly  expect  a  race  to  love  coun¬ 
tries  where  they  were  thus  oppressed,  robbed 
and  murdered.  In  the  Middle  Ages  the  Jews 
had  no  refuge  but  the  grave.  And  yet  in  those 
benighted  ages  the  Jews  were  not  wanting  in 
patriotism  in  those  countries  where  the  govern¬ 
ments  occasionally  treated  them  as  human 
beings. 

In  the  Spanish  battles  they  fought  as  bravest 
knights.  Forty  thousand  were  arrayed  against 
Alphonso  VI.,  while  he  had  as  many  Jews  fight¬ 
ing  on  his  side.  They  also  fought  valiantly  for 
Alphonso  VIII.  Alphonso  X.,  of  Castile  re¬ 
warded  them  en  masse  for  their  assistance 
against  Seville,  and  gave  them,  when  the  ene¬ 
my’s  land  was  divided,  a  village  which  was 
called  Aldea  de  los  Judeos .  They  fought  hero¬ 
ically  for  Don  Pedro,  even  after  the  Black 
Prince  had  forsaken  him,  defending  Burgos  to 
the  last  man,  saying:  “That  God  would  never 
have  it  that  they  should  deny  obedience  to  their 
natural  lord,  Don  Pedro,  or  to  his  rightful  sue- 


PATRIOTISM  OF  THE  EUROPEAN  JEW.  71 

cessor” — a  constancy  that  the  prudent  king, 
Don  Enrico,  very  much  esteemed,  saying: 
“Such  vassals  as  those  were,  by  kings  and  great 
men,  worthy  of  much  account,  seeing  they  held 
greater  respect  to  the  fidelity  they  owed  to 
their  king,  although  conquered  and  dead,  than 
to  the  present  fortune  of  the  conqueror.”  And 
awhile  after,  receiving  very  honorable  condi¬ 
tions,  they  gave  themselves  over  and  Don  Enrico 
recognized  publicly  their  patriotism. 

Despite  the  Christian  law  forbidding  the 
Jews  to  hold  administrative  or  judicial  offices, 
or  to  serve  in  the  armies  of  Christian  states 
even  in  urgent  cases  of  defense,  some  princes 
and  communities  bestowed  various  posts  of 
honor  and  trust  on  such  of  their  Jews  as  they 
found  trustworthy  and  able.  In  one  of  the 
darkest  periods  of  Jewish  history,  in  the  year 
1259,  the  Provincial  Council  of  Mayence  issued 
an  ordinance  forbidding  the  Jews  to  continue  in 
any  secular  dignity  or  public  office.  This 
shows  that  they  were  then  actually  occupying 
such  positions. 

Duke  Leopold  of  Austria,  in  the  twelfth  cen¬ 
tury,  had  a  Jew,  Solomon,  appointed  as  super¬ 
intendent  of  his  mint,  an  office  of  trust  he  held 
also  under  his  son  and  successor,  Frederick. 
Two  Jewish  brothers,  Lubin  and  Nekelo,  were 


72  JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 

functionaries  of  an  Austrian  duke  about  the 
year  1257. 

King  Philip,  the  Handsome,  of  France,  is  said 
to  have  had  30,000  Jews  in  his  army,  in  his  ex¬ 
pedition  against  Count  Guy  of  Flanders,  1297, 
who  had  renounced  his  allegiance  to  him. 

Notwithstanding  the  light  of  the  Reformation, 
pillages  and  expulsions  of  the  Jews  continued  to 
be  the  order  of  the  day.  But  always  and  every¬ 
where,  where  the  Jew  found  a  friend  in  his 
country,  the  country  found  a  friend  in  him. 
History  does  not  tell  the  story  of  braver  defen¬ 
ders  than  that  of  the  Polish  territory  put  up  by 
Jews  during  the  onslaught  of  the  Cossacks  into 
Poland  during  the  Thirty  Years  War. 

THE  GERMANS  AS  JEW  BAITERS. 

The  Germans  are  the  greatest  Jew-baiters  in 
the  world  and  look  upon  them  as  foreigners  in 
Gemany,  forgetting  the  fact  that  Caesar  found 
the  Jews  residing  on  the  Rhine  enjoying  the 
comforts  of  civilization  when  the  ancestors  of 
the  German  Gentiles  were  roaming  wild  in  the 
forests,  clad  in  boar  skins,  and  chasing  the  au¬ 
rochs.  The  Jews  are  the  most  anciently  cultured 
people  in  the  world  and  when  the  ancestors  of 
the  European  kings,  queens  and  nobles  were  re¬ 
velling  in  coarseness  or  ignorantly  bending  their 


PATRIOTISM  OF  THE  EUROPEAN  JEW.  73 

backs  to  the  commands  of  their  superiors,  the 
Jews  were  the  torch -bearers  of  the  world.  Talk 
about  pedigree!  What  are  your  Sons  and 
Daughters  of  the  Revolution  or  your  Sons  of  the 
Crusaders  compared  to  “the  Levys,  sons  of  the 
Levites,  and  the  numerous  Cahen,  Cohen,  Kohn, 
Kahn,  Coehn,  whose  undisputed  ancestors  are 
the  Colianim ,  priests  of  the  synagogue,  who 
burned  incense  before  Jehovah,  preparatory  to 
going  in  the  shade  of  Babel,  to  discuss  the 
origin  of  the  world  with  the  augurs  of  Chaldea 
and  the  magi  of  Iran.  The  sons  of  Israel  were 
distinguished  in  the  arts  and  sciences  centuries 
before  our  Latin  alphabet  was  fixed,  long  be¬ 
fore  Cyril  and  Methodius  had  given  alphabet  to 
the  Slavs,  before  Runic  inscriptions  were 
known  to  the  Germanic  races  of  the  North.” 

Germany  leads  the  scholarship  of  Europe,  and 
the  socially  outcast  Jew  leads  the  scholarship 
of  Germany.  Moses  Mendelssohn  was  the  first 
German  to  originate  a  classical  German  style. 
The  greatest  scientific  lights  of  which  Germany 
boasts  have  been  and  are  Jews.  The  greatest 
pupil  Virchow  produced  was  Cohnheim,  a  Jew, 
and  when  he  died  the  anti-Semitic  German 
government  was  forced  to  tarn  to  another  Jew 
as  his  successor.  They  offered  the  chair  to 
Weigert,  if  he  would  be  baptized,  which  he 


74 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


promptly  declined.  The  greatest  German  actors 
are  Jews.  Germany’s  greatest  financiers, 
editors,  poets  and  writers  are  Jews. 

EQUAL  EIGHTS  MAKES  CITIZENS. 

Cremieux  said:  “If  you  persecute,  you  make 
slaves ;  only  by  declaring  equal  rights  for  all 
you  will  make  good  citizens.”  King  Frederick 
William  III.  had  no  sooner  given  the  Jews  of 
Prussia  equality  with  their  Christian  fellow- 
citizens,  in  1812,  than  they  responded  readily  to 
the  summons  of  their  king. 

According  to  the  Prussian  “Military  Gazette” 
of  1843 ;  there  served  in  the  campaigns  of  1813-14, 
out  of  the  then  small  Jewish  population,  263 
volunteers  and  80  regulars.  In  1815,  when  the 
Prussian  army  had  its  fullest  strength  and  the 
Jewish  soldiers  were  more  numerous,  Harden- 
berg,  the  Prussian  Chancellor,  in  a  letter  to 
Count  von  Grote,  dated  January  4th,  gave  the 
Jews  the  following  testimony: 

“The  history  of  our  late  war  with  France 
shows  already  that  the  Jews  have,  by  their 
faithful  allegiance  to  the  state  conferring  equal 
rights  on  them  proved  worthy  of  it.  The  young 
men  of  the  Jewish  faith  were  the  military  com¬ 
rades  of  their  Christian  fellow-citizens,  of  whom 
we  can  present  instances  of  true  heroism  and 


PATRIOTISM  OF  THE  EUROPEAN  JEW.  75 

glorious  braving  of  the  dangers  of  war.  The 
rest  of  the  Jewish  inhabitants,  especially  the 
ladies,  vied  with  the  Christians  in  all  kinds  of 
patriotic  sacrifices.” 

And  what  reward  did  the  Jews  receive  for 
their  sacrifices  to  the  country?  They  were  de¬ 
nied  public  employment.  They  could  not  get 
appointments  as  teachers,  serve  as  jurors,  or 
practice  law,  unless  they  submitted  to  baptism. 
They  were  not  even  allowed  to  be  druggists.  In 
the  newly  won  French  provinces,  the  same  laws 
were  made  to  apply. 

At  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  the  Jews,  in  an 
address  published  in  1832,  made  the  following 
complaint: 

‘‘In  the  war  called  by  them  (the  despots)  the 
war  of  independence,  we,  too,  have  borne  arms. 
Before  that  war,  we  of  Frankfort,  as  every¬ 
where  else  in  Germany  where  the  French  law 
was  ruling,  enjoyed  equal  rights  with  our  Chris¬ 
tian  fellow-citizens.  When  we  returned  from 
the  battlefields,  however,  we  met  our  fathers 
and  brothers,  whom  we  had  left  as  free  citizens, 
again  as  serfs,  and  such  we  have  been  until  to¬ 
day.  They  have  assumed  over  us  the  right  of 
the  past,  viz.,  to  diminish  our  population,  as 
they  do  not  let  us  contract  more  than  fifteen 
marriages  a  year,  though  we  number  five  thou- 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


76 

sand.  They  now  advance  against  us  that  we 
came  from  the  Orient  and  were  strangers  in  the 
land,  and  that  we  considered  even  our  Christian 
countrymen  as  such.  However,  this  is  our 
creed,  this  the  doctrine  inherited  from  our 
fathers:  “When  God  created  the  world,  he 
created  man  and  woman,  not  master  and  slave, 
Jews  and  Christians,  rich  and  poor.”  Borne 
wrote  in  1819:  “After  the  overthrow  of  Napo¬ 
leon,  the  Jewish  liberties  were  here  and  there 
decried  as  pernicious  to  the  state.  The  Jews 
were  also  suspected  of  being  friendly  to  the 
French  dominion.  Their  peculiarities  were 
such  that  their  haters  would  not  tolerate  them 
as  citizens.  Only  Germans,  such  as,  according 
to  Tacitus,  came  forth  from  the  woods  with  red 
hair  and  light-blue  eyes,  were  in  their  opinion 
entitled  to  civil  rights,  whereas  the  dark-com¬ 
plexioned  Jews  contrasted  too  disagreeably  with 
them.” 

Their  participation  in  the  war  for  indepen¬ 
dence  availed  the  Jews  nothing.  The  “Military 
Gazette”  has  put  their  number  enlisted  from 
1814  to  1842  at  3,314. 

The  Constituent  Assembly  at  Berlin,  in  1848, 
had  declared  all  civil  and  political  rights  inde¬ 
pendent  of  any  religious  denomination,  whereby 
the  Jews  also  gained  their  liberties.  But  a  re- 


PATRIOTISM  OF  THE  EUROPEAN  JEW.  77 

action  set  in  and  once  more  they  had  to  fight 
for  their  liberties.  It  was  not  until  1869  that  the 
law  of  the  North  German  Confederacy  relieved 
them  from  the  mediaeval  yoke  they  had  so 
long  borne.  Political  equality  is  sanctioned  by 
law,  but  is  still  far  from  being  an  accomplished 
fact.  Since  that  time  the  German  Jews,  in  the 
Franco-Prussian  war,  have  showed  their  love 
of  the  Fatherland  in  an  unexampled  degree. 
Phillipson,  in  his  “Memoirs,”  has  collected  a  list 
of  2,531  Jewish  soldiers  in  this  war,  and  this  list 
did  not  include  the  reports  from  the  largest 
Jewish  communities,  as  Berlin,  Breslau,  Posen 
and  Frankfort. 

THE  EMANCIPATION  OF  THE  JEWS  IN  FRANCE. 

The  year  1793  guaranteed  to  the  Jews  of 
France  equality  with  French  citizens,  but,  as  the 
Dreyfus  affair  shows,  the  liberty  of  and  justice 
to  the  Jew  have  not  even  yet  passed  from  the 
statute  into  reality.  Still,  in  spite  of  all,  the  Jews 
of  France  rallied  with  equal  promptness  under 
the  banner  of  the  empire  and  the  republic  when 
the  safety  of  their  country  was  imperilled. 
Even  Napoleon,  one  of  whose  marshals,  Mas- 
sena  (whose  real  name  was  Manasseh)  was  a 
Jew,  and  by  him  surnamed,  “the  child  of 
victory,”  did  not  regard  the  Jews  as  citi- 


78  JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 

zens  until  1806.  He  then  declared:  “The 
Jews  are  not  in  the  same  category  with  the 
Christians.  We  have  to  judge  them  by  the  po¬ 
litical,  not  the  civil  right,  for  they  are  no  citi¬ 
zens.”  He  had,  however,  the  earnest  desire  to 
make  citizens  of  them.  For  this  purpose  he 
called  together  a  number  of  Jewish  deputies,  in 
1806,  charging  them  to  state  and  explain  truly 
the  obstacles,  if  there  were  any,  to  Jewish  citi¬ 
zenship,  emanating  from  their  religion.  One  of 
the  questions  put  to  that  body  was:  “Do  the 
Jews  born  in  France,  and  considered  by  the 
law  as  her  citizens,  regard  this  country  as 
theirs,  even  so  far  as  to  be  obliged  to  defend 
her?”  They  solemnly  answered :  “People  who 
choose  for  themselves  a  Fatherland,  living 
therein  since  many  centuries,  and  who,  even 
under  oppressive  laws,  felt  such  an  attachment 
to  it  that  they  did  rather  forego  the  enjoyment 
of  civil  liberties  than  quit  it,  such  cannot  but 
think  themselves  Frenchmen  in  France  and  the 
obligation  to  defend  her  is  to  them  an  honora¬ 
ble  and  precious  one. 

“Love  of  country  is  such  a  natural  and  pro¬ 
found  sentiment  among  the  Jews,  and  so  corres¬ 
ponding  to  their  religious  belief,  that  a  French 
Jew  would  think  himself  a  stranger  in  English 
territory,  even  in  his  intercourse  with  co-reli- 


PATRIOTISM  OF  THE  EUROPEAN  JEW.  79 

gionists,  the  same  being  true  of  English  Jews 
in  France. 

“This  sentiment  prevails  among  them  in  such 
a  measure  that  in  the  late  wars  one  could  fre¬ 
quently  see  French  Jews*  fight  with  fierce  ani¬ 
mosity  against  the  Jews  m  the  hostile  ranks. 
Many  of  them  are  now  beset  with  scars,  as  the 
glorious  marks  of  their  patriotic  devotion,  and 
others  have  been  praised  and  distinguished  for 
their  bravery  on  the  field  of  honor.”  In  1892 
there  were  about  300  Jewish  officers  serving  in 
the  French  army. 

In  the  Hungarian  Revolution  there  were  no 
less  than  35,000  Israelites.  As  by  magic  they 
were  drawn  toward  Kossuth,  who  preached 
liberty  and  equality  and  at  whose  hands  they 
expected  redemption  from  civil  and  political 
degradation. 

The  first  soldiers  that  stormed  Plevna  were 
Roumanian  Jews  and  the  generals  on  both  sides 
were  Jews.  In  the  last  war  between  Turkey  and 
Greece,  Giuseppe  Misan,  a  Jew,  received  the 
first  wound. 

In  Italy  1.4  per  cent,  of  all  Italian  Jews  are  in 
the  army  against  1.1  of  all  Italians.  And  out 


*Of  77,000  Jews  in  all  the  French  provinces,  there  were  about 
that  time  797  in  active  military  service.  (Gratz’s  History,  Vol. 
X.,  p.  304.) 


80 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


of  every  five  Jews  serving  in  the  Italian  army 
one  is  an  officer  against  one  in  twelve  in  the 
Italian  army  as  a  whole. 

THE  JEWS  OF  ENGLAND. 

On  the  31st  of  August,  1290,  Edward  I.,  banish¬ 
ed  all  the  Jews  from  England — 16,511 — pitiless¬ 
ly  driven  from  a  country  inhabited  by  their  an¬ 
cestors  as  far  back  as  the  eighth  century.  You 
could  hardly  expect  them  to  love  England — and 
yet  no  sooner  had  favorable  legislation  restored 
them  to  citizenship  than  they  proved  their  love 
of  country.  The  complete  emancipation  of  the 
Jews  in  England  was  not  brought  about  until 
1858,  when  Parliament  resolved  to  admit  Jewrs 
without  the  obligation  to  subscribe  the  oath  “on 
the  faith  of  a  true  Christian,”  then  their  prac¬ 
tical  persecution  was  ended.  For  as  Macaulay 
said,  “Persecution  it  is  to  inflict  penalties  on 
account  of  religious  opinions.”  Down  to  this 
time,  many  eminent  lawyers  and  judges 
doubted  whether  a  Jew  could  lawfully  hold  real 
estate  in  England.*  Forty -one  years  have 
elapsed  since  the  English  Jews  were  fully  ernan- 
cipated.  Macaulay,  champion  of  humanity, 


*  Under  the  statutes  or  ordinances  of  the  54th  and  55th,  Henry- 
Ill.  (a.  D.  1269),  which  declared  that  no  Jew  should  hold  a  free¬ 
hold. 


PATRIOTISM  OF  THE  EUROPEAN  JEW. 


81 


who  did  so  much  to  remove  their  disabilities, 
declared  it  was  unfair  “till  we  have  tried  the 
experiment,  whether  by  making  Englishmen  of 
them,  they  will  not  become  members  of  the 
community.”  Not  only  has  the  Jewish  race 
produced  a  Major-General,  Albert  Goldsmid,  and 
two  Lieutenant- Generals,  Sir  Jacob  Adolphus, 
and  Sir  David  Ximines,  in  the  English  army,  and 
Sir  Alexander  Shomberg  who  distinguished  him¬ 
self  in  the  British  navy,  but  every  one  familiar 
with  English  history  knows  that  no  people  as  a 
whole  have  shown  a  deeper  concern  for  the 
honor  and  the  truest  interests  of  their  country, 
and  that  no  people  have  made  greater  sacrifices 
of  comfort,  of  substance,  and  of  life  than  the 
sons  of  Israel. 

JEWS  IN  THE  BRITISH  NAVY,  ARMY  AND  AUXILIARY 


FORCES. 


Chaplain  F.  L.  Cohen,  in  the  Jewish  Year  Book 
for  1898  makes  the  following  rough  maximum 
estimate  of  the  numbers  of  all  ranks  serving  in 
the  various  branches  of  Her  Majesty’s  forces: 


Royal  Navy  and  Marines . 

Regular  Army . 

Militia . 

Hon.  Artillery  Company,  Yeomanry  Cavalry 


40  Jews 
200  Jews 
60  Jews 


and  Volunteers 


500  Jews 


82 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW 


Jewish  officers  serving  1898: 

ROYAL  NAVY. 

Lieutenant  C.  G.  R.  Brandon. .  .H.  M.  S.  Cossack. 

Midshipman  V.  R.  Brandon _ H.  M.  S.  Imperieuse. 

Midshipman  G.  H.  Frey  berg. .  .H.  M.  S.  Undaunted. 

Midshipman  H.  D.  Warburg _ H.  M.  S.  Calypso. 

Midshipman  K.  A.  Yates . H.  M.[S.  Doris. 

Captain  H.  E.  Blumberg . Royal  Marine  Light  Infantry. 

REGULAR  ARMY. 

Col.  A.  E.  W.  Goldsmid,  p.  s.  c. .  Asst.  Adjt.  -Gen.  Thames  Dist. 

Lieutenant  H.  J.  J.  Stern . 13th  Hussars. 

Lieutenant  C.  Behrens . Royal  Horse  Artillery. 

Lieut. -Col.  E.  N.  Henriques _ Royal  Artillery. 

Major  F.  L.  Nathan,  p.  a.  c _ Royal  Artillery. 

Lieutenant  H.  S.  Seligman . Royal  Artillery. 

Lieut.  -Col.  J.  J.  Leverson,  C.  M. 

G.,  p.  s.  c . Royal  Engineers. 

Major  G  F.  Leverson,  p.  s.  c. . Royal  Engineers. 

Captain  M.  Nathan . Royal  Engineers. 

Captain  W.  S.  Nathan . Royal  Engineers. 

Second  Lieut.  O.  G.  Brandon ..  Royal  Engineers. 

Second  Lieut.  T.  T.  Behrens. ..  Royal  Engineers. 

Captain  W.  A.  W.  Lawson _ Scots  Guards. 

Lieutenant  H.  A.  Leverson . Royal  Enniskillin  Fusiliers. 

Captain  F.  D.  Behrend . West  Riding  Regiment. 

Lieutenant  F.  M.  Raphael . South  Lancashire  Regiment. 

Capt.  E.  S.  D.  Goldschmidt,  p.s.c.  Welsh  Regiment. 

Major  F.  P.  Lousada . York  and  Lancaster  Regiment. 

Second  Lieut.  H.S.Oppenheimer.  West  India  Regiment. 

lieutenant  F.  G.  E.  Cannot _ Army  Service  Corps. 

Lieutenant  J.  Salomone . . .  .Royal  Malta  Artillery. 

Captain  D.  E.  Mocatta . Indian  Staff  Corps. 

Surgeon-Lieut.  A.  Leventon _ Indian  Medical  Service. 

Captain  H.  S.  Samuel . Army  Pay  Department. 

Lieutenant  J.  Ezechiel . Indian  Commissariat. 

Assistant  Surveyor  E.  P.  Dur- 
lacher,  F.  S.  I.,  A.  M.  I.  C.  E.  .Civil  Staff  Royal  Engineers. 
Rev.  F.  L.  Cohen . Officiating  Chaplain. 


83 


PATRIOTISM  OF  THE  EUROPEAN  JEW. 

MILITIA. 

Major  H.  B.  Lewis-Bamed  (Re¬ 
serve  of  Officers) . Kent  Artillery. 

Lieutenant  O.  M.  Harris . Suffolk  Artillery. 

Captain  G.  E.  Joseph . Lancashire  Artillery. 

Captain  E  O.  Oppenheim . 3d  Bn.  Royal  Irish  Rifles. 

Captain  E.  C.  Arnold  (Reserve 

of  Officers) . 7th  Bn.  Royal  Fusiliers. 

Lieutenant  A.  F.  Joseph . 7th  Bn.  Rifle  Brigade. 

YEOMANRY  AND  VOLUNTEERS. 

Major  H.  L.  W.  Lawson . Royal  Bucks  Hussars. 

Lieut.  Hon.  L.  W.  Rothschild . . .  Royal  Bucks  Hussars. 

Lieut.  L.  L.  F.  Faudel-Phillips.  .Herts  Yeomanry  Cavalry. 

Captain  E.  D.  Stern . Berks  Yeomanry  Cavalry. 

Captain  H.  M.  Jessel,  M.  P . Berks  Yeomanry  Cavalry. 

Captain  C.  A.  Emanuel . 1st  Hampshire  Vol.  Artillery. 

Captain  E.  A.  Behrend . 1st  Lancashire  Vol.  Artillery. 

Captain  H.  D.  Behrend . 1st  Lancashire  Vol.  Artillery. 

Lieutenant  B.  Stem . 1st  Lancashire  Vol.  Artillery. 

Captain  A.  L.  Peczenik . W.  Somerset  Yeomanry  Cavalry. 

Captain  S.  G.  Goldschmidt . 7th  Lancashire  Vol.  Artillery. 

Lieutenant  O.  B.  Goldschmidt.  .7th  Lancashire  Vol  Artillery. 

Major  B.  S.  Jacobs,  V.  D . 2d  East  Yorkshire  Vol.  Artillery. 

Lieutenant  P.  Hildesheim . 2d  Middlesex  Vol.  Artillery. 

Major  C.  Q.  Henriques . 1st  Middlesex  Royal  Engineers. 

Captain  C.  S.  Montefiore . 1st  Middlesex  Royal  Engineers. 

Lieutenant  W.  Oppenheim . 2d  Lancashire  Royal  Engineers. 

Lieut. -Col.  D.  deL.  Cohen,  V.  D.2d  Tower  Hamlets  Royal  Eng’rs. 
Second  Lieut.  J.  J.  de  L.  Cohen  .  2d  Tower  Hamlets  Royal  Eng’rs. 
Captain  F.  Murray-Campbell. .  .4th  V.  B.  Ryl.  West  Surrey  Rgt. 

Lieutenant  E.  R.  Harris . 2d  V.  B.  Northumberland  Fus. 

Lt.-Col.  M.  A.  Blumenthal,V.D.  .2d  Vol.  Bn.  Royal  Fusiliers. 

Captain  A.  Levy  Lever . 2d  Vol.  Bn.  Royal  Fusiliers. 

Captain  P.  Carlebach . 2d  Vol.  Bn.  Royal  Fusiliers. 

Lieutenant  A.  Pam . . 2d  Vol.  Bn.  Royal  Fusiliers. 

Lieutenant  H.  D’ A.  Blumberg . .  3d  V ol.  Bn.  Liverpool  Regiment. 

Lieutenant  E.  K.  Yates . 4th  V.  B.  Liverpool  Regiment. 

Lieutenant  E.  J.  Chapman . 4th  V.  B.  Suffolk  Regiment. 

Second  Lieut.  L.  M.  Heyman  .  .1st  V.  B.  West  Yorkshire  Regt. 
Second  Lieut.  H.  J.  Gotschalk.  .1st  V.  B.  East  Yorkshire  Regt. 
Hon.  Col.  Lord  Wandsworth  .  .4th  Vol.  Bn.  East  Surry  Regt. 


84 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 

YEOMANRY  AND  VOLUNTEERS.  — Continued. 

Major  H.  D.  Sichel,  Q . 3d  Vol.  Bn.  West  Riding  Regt. 

Major  M.  Emanuel,  V.  D . 2d  Vol.  Bn.  Hampshire  Regt. 

Lieutenant  H.  H.  Harris . 17th  Middlesex  Vol.  Rifles. 

Lieutenant  W.  Schoenfeld . 17th  Middlesex  Vol.  Rifles. 

Second  Lieutenant  S.  N.  Spira.  .17th  Middlesex  Vol.  Rifles. 

Lieutenant  B.  A.  Elkins . 1st  Middlesex  Vol.  Rifles. 

Captain  J.  W.  Cohen . 13th  Middlesex  Vol.  Rifles. 

Lieutenant  M.  H.  Josephi . 21st  Middlesex  Vol.  Rifles. 

Captain  E.  Parker . 22d  Middlesex  Vol.  Rifles. 

Captain  L.  G.  Marcus . 2d  London  Vol.  Rifles. 

Second  Lieut.  S.  D.  Myers . 2d  London  Vol.  Rifles. 

Second  Lieut.  E.  A.  Meyer . 2d  London  Vol.  Rifles. 

Major  H.  H.  Montagu,  V.  D. . .  .3d  London  Vol.  Rifles. 

Captain  J.  H.  Montagu . 3d  London  Vol.  Rifles. 

Captain  C.  D.  Enoch . 3d  London  Vol.  Rifles  . 

CaptainS.  L.  Mandleberg . 4th  Vol.  Bn.  Manchester  Regt. 

Lieutenant  H.  T.  Dreschfeld  . .  .5th  Vol.  Bn.  Manchester  Regt. 

Lieut.  L.  B.  L.  Belinfante . 16th  Middlesex  Vol.  Rifles. 

Lieut. -Col.  F.  A.  Lucas,  V.  D. 

(Reserve  of  Officers) . 20th  Middlesex  Vol.  Rifles. 

Surgeon-Capt.  H.  Dutch,  M.  D..lst  Tower  Hamlets  Vol.  Rifles. 
Second  Lieut.  M.  Coplans . 1st  Cadet  Bn.  East  Kent  Regt. 

COLONIAL  MILITIA  AND  VOLUNTEERS. 

CANADA. 

Second  Lieut.  F.  D.  Benjamin. 2d  Queen’s  Own  Rifles  Bn. 

Second  Lieut.  G.  C.  Hiam . 3d  Victoria  Rifles,  Bn. 

Lieutenant  D.  C.  Meyers . 10th  Royal  Grenadiers  Bn. 

Second  Lieut.  G.  F.  Gabriel _ 36th  Peel  Bn. 

Captain  S.  N.  Davis . 37th  Haldimand  Rifles  Bn. 

Lieutenant  W.  H.  Vanvliet _ 51st  Hemingford  Rangers  Bn. 

Captain  D.  A.  Hart . 60th  Missisquoi  Infantry  Bn. 

Lieutenant  I.  W.  Vidito . 63d  Halifax  Rifles  Bn. 

Captain  M.  Lee . 77th  Westmoreland  Infantry  Bn 

CAPE  OF  GOOD  HOPE. 

Lieutenant  F.  H.  Solomon . Capetown  Highlanders. 

Second  Lieut.  W.  S.  Harris . Kimberley  Rifles. 

JAMAICA. 

Reserve  of  Officers. 


Captain  D.  H.  Mendez 


PATRIOTISM  OF  THE  EUROPEAN  JEW.  85 
COLONIAL  MILITIA  AND  V OLUNTEERS. — Continued. 

NATAL. 

Lieutenant  H.  M.  Landsberg. .  .Natal  Carabiniers. 

NEW  SOUTH  WALES. 

Major  M.  M.  Boam . Dept.  Asst.  Adjutant-General 

NEW  SOUTH  WALES. 

Paymaster  C.  Solomon . Staff. 

Second  Lieut.  M.  J.  Cohen . 1st  Infantry  Bn. 

Second  Lieut.  L.  Solomon . 7th  Infantry  Bn. 

Captain  L.  Bernstein . Reserve  of  Officers. 

NEW  ZEALAND. 

Major  B.  Harris,  V.  D . Unattached  Active  List. 

Captain  B.  Harris,  V.  D . South  Franklin  Mounted  Rifles 

Captain  C.  Kohn . Auckland  City  Rifles. 

Captain  S.  S.  Myers . Otago  Infantry  Bn. 

Lieutenant  S.  Wolf . South  Canterbury  Infantry  Bn. 

Lieutenant  H.  Baron . B.  Infantry  Bn. 

QUEENSLAND. 

Captain  J.  E.  Joseph . Mounted  Infantry. 

SOUTH  AUSTRALIA. 

Lieutenant-Colonel  B.  Solomon .  Field  Artillery. 

TRINIDAD. 

Lieutenant  E.  Lazare . Field  Artillery. 

Second  Lieut.  L.  A.  Solomon. . .  Light  Infantry. 

VICTORIA. 

Major  J.  Monash . Garrison  Artillery. 

Lieut. -Col.  R.  E.  Joseph . Submarine  Miners,  Engineers. 

Lieutenant  E.  Gutheil . 3d  Bn.  Militia  Infantry. 

Captain  J.  Isacson . Victorian  Rangers. 

Lieut. -Col.  J.  R.  Y.  Goldstein. .  .Reserve  of  Officers. 

Captain  M.  A.  Lazarus . Reserve  of  Officers. 

Captain  H.  A.  Jacobs . Reserve  of  Officers. 

Lieutenant  D.  B.  Lazarus . Reserve  of  Officers. 

Lieutenant  M.  Blashki . Reserve  of  Officers. 

WEST  AUSTRALIA. 

Lieutenant  S.  Harris . Volunteer  Infantry. 

Lieutenant  R.  Strelitz . Volunteer  Infantry. 


86  JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 

COLONIAL  MILITIA  AND  VOLUNTEERS.  — Continued. 


INDIA. 

Lieutenant  A.  R.  Jacobson . Eastern  Bengal  States  Ry.  Vol. 

Rifles. 

Captain  R.  Benjamin . Moulmein  Vol.  Rifles. 

Major  B.  Samuel . Burma  State  Ry.  Vol.  Corps. 

Second  Lieut.  G.  A.  Berends. .  .Bombay  Vol.  Rifles. 

Captain  M.  S.  Landsberg . 2d  Bn.  Calcutta  V ol.  Rifles. 

Previous  to  the  recent  reorganization  of  the 
Bombay  army  in  class  companies  (each  solely 
composed  of  members  of  one  of  the  dominant 
religions  or  race)  there  were  more  than  one 
hundred  of  the  Beni-Israel  serving  among  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  native  infantry. 

The  following  Jewish  native  officers  are  still 
serving : 

Jamadar  Sooker  Hyam . 1st  Bombay  Infantry  Grenadiers. 

Subadar  Moses  Sutkiel . 3d  Bombay  Light  Infantry. 

Subadar  Joseph  Aaron . 3d  Bombay  Light  Infantry. 

Subadar  Reuben  Nissin . 8th  Bombay  Infantry. 

Subadar  Major  Samuel  Moses. . .  12th  Bombay  Infantry. 

Subadar  David  Moses . 12th  Bombay  Infantry. 

Subadar  Samuel  Moses . 17th  Bombay  Infantry. 

Subadar  Maj.  Hyam  Benjamin. 22d  Bombay  Infantry. 

Subadar  Moses  Samuel . 22d  Bombay  Infantry. 

Subadar-Bahadoor  Ezek’l Israel. 28th  Bombay  Infantry  Pioneers. 


The  Jew  as  an 


American  Patriot, 


The  legend  of  the  “Wandering  Jew  ”  has  a  pathos  beyond  the 
usual  interpretation.  The  story  is  told  that  the  Jew,  who  refused 
to  comfort  Christ  as  he  toiled  under  the  weight  of  the  cross,  was 
condemned  to  tarry  until  he  came,  and  so  wanders  around  the 
world  until  the  second  coming.  But  it  is  the  symbol  also  of  the 
restlessness  of  the  race,  roaming  through  Christendom,  homeless 
and  rejected.  It  is  the  curse,  says  many  a  Christian  heart,  of 
the  people  that  crucified  the  Redeemer.  This  is  the  common 
theory  of  the  origin  of  the  traditional  antipathy  to  the  Jews, 
and,  undoubtedly,  this  is  with  many  persons  a  vague  justification 
of  the  feeling  with  which  the  Jew  is  regarded.  But  should  it  be 
nothing  to  such  persons  that  when,  as  they  believe,  the  Creator 
would  incarnate  Himself,  He  became  a  Jew  ?  Or,  again,  do  they 
reflect  that  if  it  was  in  the  eternal  decrees  that  the  sins  of  men 
were  to  be  atoned  and  condoned  by  the  innocent  sacrifice,  those 
who  accomplished  the  sacrifice  were  but  the  agents  of  the  Divine 
will  ?  Are  all  such  ingenious  speculations  other  than  devices  to 
explain  and  justify  a  mere  prejudice  of  race,  such  as  some 
African  tribes  cherish  against  people  of  white  skins  ?  Those  who 
find  in  such  prejudice  a  profound  significance  will  continue  to 
plead  the  feeling  as  its  own  sufficient  reason.  But  honorable 
men  will  be  careful  how  they  carelessly  use  the  name  of  a  race 
to  which  the  religion,  the  literature,  the  art,  the  civilized  prog' 
ress  of  humanity,  are  so  greatly  indebted,  as  a  term  of  utter  de¬ 
rision  and  scorn.— George  William  Curtis. 


THE  JEW  AS  AN  AMERICAN  PATRIOT. 


89 


CHAPTEB  V. 

THE  JEW  AS  AN  AMERICAN  PATRIOT. 

That  the  Jews  furnished  more  than  their  pro¬ 
portion  of  supporters  to  the  colonial  cause  we 
have  unimpeachable  evidence — they  gave  their 
lives  for  independence,  and  aided  with  their 
money  to  equip  and  maintain  the  armies  of  the 
Eevolution.  The  Non-Importation  Eesolution  in 
1765  the  first  organized  movement  in  the  agitation 
for  separation  from  the  mother  country,  a 
document  still  preserved  in  Carpenter’s  Hall, 
Philadelphia,  contains  the  following  Jewish 
names:  Benjamin  Levy,  Samson  Levy,  Joseph 
Jacobs,  Hyman  Levy,  Jr.,  David  Franks,  Ma¬ 
thias  Bush,  Michael  Gratz,  Barnard  Gratz,  and 
Moses  Mordecai.  In  1769  a  corps  of  volunteer 
infantry  was  raised  in  Charleston,  South  Caro¬ 
lina,  composed  chiefly  of  Hebrews,  under  com¬ 
mand  of  Captain  Lushington,  and  which  after¬ 
ward  fought  with  great  bravery  under  General 
Moultrie  at  Beaufort. 

The  decision  reached  in  New  York,  in  1770,  to 
make  more  stringent  the  Non-Importation 
Agreement,  which  the  colonists  adopted  to 
bring  England  to  terms  on  the  taxation  ques- 


90 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


tion,  had  among  its  signers:  Samuel  Judah, 
Hayman  Levy,  Jacob  Moses,  Jacob  Meyers, 
Jonas  Phillips,  and  Isaac  Seixas.  At  a  time 
when  the  sinews  of  war  were  essential  to  suc¬ 
cess,  Haym  Salomon,  of  Philadelphia,  responded 
to  Robert  Morris’  appeal  with  $300,000,  and  it  is 
variously  estimated,  gave,  all  told,  $600,000, 
not  a  penny  of  which  has  ever  been  repaid  to 
the  heirs  of  the  philanthropist  and  patriot.  But 
Haym  Salomon  was  not  the  only  Jew  who  sacri¬ 
ficed  his  fortune  for  independence,  for  we  find 
among  the  signers  of  the  Bills  of  Credit  for  the 
Continental  Congress  in  1776,  were  Benjamin 
Levy,  of  Philadelphia,  and  Benjamin  Jacobs,  of 
New  York.  Samuel  Lyon,  of  New  York,  was 
among  the  signers  of  similar  bills  in  1779.  Isaac 
Moses,  of  Philadelphia,  contributed  $15,000  to 
the  Colonial  Treasury,  and  Herman  Levy, 
another  Philadelphian,  repeatedly  advanced 
considerable  sums  for  the  support  of  the  army 
in  the  field.  Manuel  Mordecai  Noah,  of  South 
Carolina,  not  only  served  in  the  army  as 
an  officer  on  Washington’s  staff,  and  likewise 
with  General  Marion,  but  gave  $100,000  to  fur¬ 
ther  the  cause  in  which  he  was  enlisted. 

Cj^rus  Adler  recently  called  attention  to  the  fol¬ 
lowing  incident.  His  information  was  based  on 
an  unpublished  letter  of  Jared  Sparks.  “At 


THE  JEW  AS  AN  AMERICAN  PATRIOT.  91 

the  outbreak  of  the  Revolutionary  War  a  Mr. 
Gomez  of  New  York  proposed  to  a  member  of 
the  Continental  Congress  that  he  form  a  com¬ 
pany  of  soldiers  for  service.  The  member  of 
Congress  remonstrated  with  Mr.  Gomez  on  the 
score  of  age,  he  then  being  sixty-eight,  to 
which  Mr.  Gomez  replied  that  he  “could  stop  a 
bullet  as  well  as  a  younger  man.” 

Colonel  Isaac  Franks  became  aid-de-camp  to 
Washington,  holding  the  rank  of  colonel  on  his 
staff,  and  served  with  distinction  throughout 
the  war.  Major  Benjamin  Nones,  a  native  of 
Bordeaux,  France,  who  came  to  America  in 
1777,  served  on  the  staffs  of  both  Lafayette  and 
Washington.  He  entered  service  under  Pulas¬ 
ki,  as  a  private,  and  as  he  writes,  “fought  in 
almost  every  action  which  took  place  in  Caro¬ 
lina,  and  in  the  disastrous  affair  of  Savannah 
shared  the  hardships  of  that  sanguinary  day.” 
He  became  major  of  a  legion  of  four  hundred 
men  attached  to  Baron  de  Kalb’s  command  and 
composed  in  part  of  Hebrews.  And  when  the 
brave  De  Kalb  fell  mortally  wounded,  Major 
Nones,  Captain  Jacob  de  la  Motta  and  Captain 
Jacob  de  Leon  carried  their  chief  from  the  field. 

Colonel  David  S.  Franks,  whose  pure  patriot¬ 
ism  and  interest  in  the  struggle  for  independence 
drew  him  from  Montreal,  became  Arnold’s  aid- 


92 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


de-camp.  Franks  gave  testimony  to  Mrs. 
Arnold’s  innocence  of  all  complicity  in  her  hus¬ 
band’s  treason.  Suspicions  were  aroused 
against  Franks  on  account  of  Arnold’s  treason, 
but  after  a  searching  inquiry  into  his  conduct  he 
was  not  only  acquitted,  but  he  was  sent  to 
Europe  with  important  dispatches  to  Jay  and 
Franklin,  with  instructions  to  await  their  orders. 
In  a  letter  from  Robert  Morris  to  Franklin,  dated 
Philadelphia,  July  13,  1781,  we  read:  “The 
bearer  of  the  letter,  Major  Franks,  formerly  an 
aid-de-camp  to  General  Arnold,  and  honorably 
acquitted  of  all  connection  with  him  after  a  full 
and  impartial  inquiry,  will  be  able  to  give  you 
our  public  news  more  particularly  than  I  could 
relate  them.” 

Philip  Moses  Russell,  in  the  spring  of  1775,  en¬ 
listed  as  a  surgeon’s  mate,  under  command  of 
General  Lee.  After  the  British  occupation  of 
Philadelphia,  in  September,  1777,  he  became 
surgeon’s  mate  to  Surgeon  Norman,  of  the 
Second  Virginia  Regiment.  Russell  went  into 
winter  quarters  with  the  army  at  Valley  Forge, 
1777-1778.  Sickness  forced  him  to  resign  in 
August,  1780.  He  received  a  letter  of  com¬ 
mendation  from  General  Washington,  “for  his 
assiduous  and  faithful  attentions  to  the  sick 
and  wounded.” 


THE  JEW  AS  AN  AMERICAN  PATRIOT.  93 

Solomon  Bush,  Emanuel  de  la  Motta,  Benja¬ 
min  Ezekiel,  Jason  Sampson,  Colonel  Jacob  de 
la  Motta,  Ascher  Levy,  Nathaniel  Levy,  David 
Hays  and  his  son  Jacob,  Reuben  Etting,  Jacob 
I.  Cohen,  Major  Lewis  Bush,  Aaron  Benjamin, 
Joseph  Bloomfield,  Moses  Bloomfield,  Isaac 
Israel  and  Benjamin  Moses,  are  a  few  of  the 
other  names  of  Jews  who  distinguished  them¬ 
selves  upon  the  battlefields  of  the  Revolution. 

The  commemoration  of  the  first  battlefield  of 
the  Revolutionary  War  was  made  possible 
through  a  Jew.  Upon  learning  that  Amos 
Lawrence  of  Boston  had  pledged  himself  to  give 
$10,000  to  complete  the  Bunker  Hill  monument, 
if  any  other  person  could  be  found  to  give  a 
like  amount,  Judah  Touro,  of  New  Orleans, 
who  came  to  the  aid  of  Andrew  Jackson  during 
the  memorable  defense  of  that  city,  immediately 
sent  a  check  for  the  amount.  At  a  dinner  given 
at  Faneuil  Hall,  on  June  13,  1843,  to  celebrate 
the  completion  of  the  monument,  the  two  great 
benefactors  of  the  association  were  remembered 
by  the  following  toasts : 

Amos  and  Judah,  venerated  names, 

Patriarch  and  Prophet  press  their  equal  claims, 

Like  generous  coursers  running  “neck  and  neck  ” 

Each  aids  the  work  by  giving  it  a  check. 

Christian  and  Jew,  they  carry  out  one  plan, 

For  though  of  different  faiths,  each  is  in  heart  a  MAN 


94 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


THE  WAR  OF  1812. 

One  of  the  most  distinguished  soldiers  in  the 
War  of  1812  was  Brigadier-General  Joseph 
Bloomfield.  Colonel  Nathan  Myers,  Samuel 
Noah,  Captain  Meyer  Moses,  Judah  Touro, 
Lieutenants  Isaac  Mertz,  Benjamin  Gratz,  David 
Metzler  and  Adjutant  Isaacs  Meyers,  are  a  few 
of  the  Jewish  names  on  the  roll  of  honor  in  our 
second  war  against  England. 

At  the  time  of  the  Mexican  war,  in  1846,  the 
Jewish  population  was  perhaps  15,000. 

General  David  de  Leon  twice  took  the  place 
of  commanding  officers  who  had  been  killed  or 
disabled  by  wounds,  and  twice  received  the 
thanks  of  the  United  States  Congress  for  his 
gallantry  and  ability.  Surgeon- General  Moses 
Albert  Levy,  Colonel  Leon  Dyer,  quarter-mas¬ 
ter-general  under  General  Winfield  Scott,  Lieu¬ 
tenant  Henry  Seeligson,  who  was  sent  for  by 
General  Taylor  and  by  him  complimented  for 
his  conspicuous  bravery  at  Monterey;  Major 
Alfred  Mordecai,  Sergeant  Jacob  Davis,  Ser¬ 
geant  Samuel  Henry,  and  Corporal  Jacob  Hirsch- 
born,  are  the  names  of  a  few  of  the  sons  of 
Israel  who  left  valuable  evidences  of  their  pat¬ 
riotism  in  the  Mexican  War. 

From  the  earliest  period  of  the  republic  to 


THE  JEW  AS  AN  AMERICAN  PATRIOT.  95 

the  present  time,  the  Jew  has  been  a  conspicuous 
figure  in  our  regular  army  and  navy  and  in 
-  every  branch  of  the  service  he  has  made  an 
honorable  record. 

Major  Alfred  Mordecai,  is  a  recognized  au¬ 
thority  in  the  military  world,  in  the  field  of 
scientific  research,  and  in  the  practical  applica¬ 
tion  of  mechanical  deduction  to  war  uses.  His 
son  and  namesake  has  been  an  instructor  at 
West  Point.  Commodore  Uriah  Phillips  Levy 
at  the  time  of  his  death,  1862,  was  the  highest 
ranking  officer  (flag  officer)  in  our  navy,  and 
upon  his  tombstone  at  Cypress  Hills  is  recorded 
the  fact  that  “he  was  the  father  of  the  law  for 
the  abolition  of  the  barbarous  practice  of  cor¬ 
poral  punishment  in  the  United  States  navy.” 

IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

In  the  Civil  War  the  part  the  Jews  took  is  so 
conspicuous  that  it  is  difficult  to  pick  out  the 
most  prominent  men  in  the  conflict.  Myer 
Asch,  Nathan  E>.  Menken  and  Louis  H.  Mayer, 
served  on  the  staff  of  General  Pope,  Mayer 
serving  also  with  Generals  Rosecrans  and 
Grant.  Dr.  Morris  J.  Asch  served  on  the  staff 
of  General  Sheridan.  Major  Lully,  who  during 
the  Hungarian  Revolution  served  on  Kossuth’s 
staff,  rendered  valuable  service  under  the  direc- 


96 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


tion  of  the  Secretary  of  War.  Captain  Dessauer, 
killed  at  Chancellorsville,  and  Newman  Borchard 
served  on  the  staff  of  General  Howard.  Max 
Cornheim  and  M.  Szegley  served  on  the  staff  of 
General  Sigel.  Jewish  staff  officers  in  the  Con¬ 
federate  army  and  navy  are  equally  conspicuous, 
showing  the  spirit  of  Hebrew  loyalty  to  convic¬ 
tion,  for  it  should  always  be  remembered  that 
while  the  Jews  of  the  North  outnumbered  the 
Jews  of  the  South,  they  were  for  the  most  part 
immigrants  of  a  recent  date,  while  the  Southern 
Jews  were  either  natives  of  the  soil  or  citizens 
of  long  influential  standing,  and  therefore  more 
imbued  with  the  spirit  and  more  interested  in 
the  result  of  the  conflict.  North  Carolina  sent 
six  Cohen  brothers,  South  Carolina  five  Moses 
brothers,  Georgia,  Raphael  Moses  and  his  three 
sons,  while  yet  another  Moses  brother  came 
from  Alabama.  Arkansas  furnished  three  Cohen 
brothers,  Virginia  sent  out  three  Levy  brothers, 
Louisiana’s  muster  rolls  also  contain  three 
brothers  of  the  same  name,  while  still  another 
trio,  of  Goldsmiths,  went  forth  from  the  South, 
two  from  Georgia  and  one  from  South  Carolina. 
Mississippi  provided  five  Jonas  brothers,  Ed¬ 
ward  fighting  in  the  Fiftieth  Illinois  against  his 
four  Confederate  brothers,  one  of  whom  was 
Benjamin  F.  Jonas,  former  United  States  Sena¬ 
tor  from  Louisiana. 


THE  JEW  AS  AN  AMERICAN  PATRIOT.  97 

On  the  Union  side,  New  York  alone  furnished 
1,996  soldiers,  among  them  the  five  Wenk 
brothers,  Colonel  Simon  Levy  and  his  three 
sons,  Captain  Benjamin  C.,  Lieutenant  Alfred, 
and  Captain  Ferdinand,  former  register  of  New 
York  City.  The  Feder  brothers  also  came  from 
New  York.  From  Ohio,  which  furnished  the 
next  largest  quota,  1,004,  in  the  war  for  the 
Union,  we  have  the  three  Koch  brothers,  while 
Pennsylvania  which  sent  527  Hebrews,  also  sent 
three  Jewish  brothers,  Emanuel,  and  so  four¬ 
teen  Jewish  families  sent  53  men  to  both  armies, 
and  according  to  the  Hon.  Simon  Wolf,  7,884 
Jewish  soldiers  served  in  the  Union  and  Confed¬ 
erate  armies  during  the  Civil  War. 

Among  the  Hebrew  officers  in  the  Union  army 
who  achieved  high  distinction  we  may  mention: 
Frederick  Knefler,  a  native  of  Hungary,  who  at¬ 
tained  the  highest  rank  reached  by  any  Hebrew 
during  the  Civil  War.  He  enlisted  as  a  private 
in  the  Seventy-ninth  Indiana  Volunteer  In¬ 
fantry,  and  fought  his  way  up  to  the  colonelcy 
of  his  regiment,  soon  rising  to  the  rank  of  briga¬ 
dier-general,  and  then  brevet  major-general  for 
meritorious  services  at  the  battle  of  Chickamau- 
ga.  He  fought  gallantly  in  all  the  principal 
battles  of  the  army  of  the  Cumberland,  under 
Generals  Rosecrans,  Thomas  and  Grant,  and 


98 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


took  part  in  all  the  conflicts  under  Sherman’s 
march  to  the  sea. 

Edward  S.  Solomon,  colonel  of  the  Eighty- 
second  Illinois  Volunteer  Infantry,  fought  ai 
Chattanooga,  Lookout  Mountain,  Missionary 
Ridge  and  Chancellorsville,  Gettysburg  and 
throughout  all  the  campaign  in  the  Southwest 
and  was  brevetted  brigadier-general.  He  was 
for  four  years  governor  of  Washington  Territory 
by  the  appointment  of  President  Grant. 

Leopold  Blumenberg,  a  Baltimore  merchant, 
a  native  of  Frankfort-on-the-Oder,  decorated 
for  meritorious  service  rendered  the  Prussian 
army  in  the  Prussian-Danish  war  of  1848,  when 
Fort  Sumter  was  fired  upon,  abandoned  his 
business,  and  helped  to  organize  the  Fifth  Regi¬ 
ment,  Maryland  Infantry,  of  which  he  was  ap¬ 
pointed  major.  His  regiment  was  engaged  in 
the  battle  of  Antietam  under  him  as  colonel. 
He  was  brevetted  brigadier-general,  and  died 
in  1876,  the  result  of  the  wound  he  received  at 
Antietam. 

Philip  J.  Joachimsen  organized  the  Fifty- 
ninth  New  York  Volunteer  regiment,  and  went 
to  the  front  with  it  as  colonel.  A  fall  from  his 
horse  disqualified  him  for  military  duty.  He 
rendered  great  services  while  stationed  at  For¬ 
tress  Monroe  as  United  States  paymaster,  and 


THE  JEW  AS  AN  AMERICAN  PATRIOT.  99 

for  his  assistance  to  General  B.  F.  Butler  at 
New  Orleans,  Governor  Fenton  of  New  York,  in 
acknowledgment  of  his  eminent  services,  ap¬ 
pointed  him  brevet  brigadier-general. 

Colonel  Marcus  M.  Spiegel,  of  the  One  Hun¬ 
dred  and  Twentieth  Ohio  Infantry,  who  died 
before  he  could  receive  the  promotion  to  a  briga¬ 
dier-generalship  for  which  his  superior  officers 
recommended  him  for  bravery  at  Vicksburg 
and  Snaggy  Point;  Max  Einstein,  colonel  of  the 
Twenty-seventh  Regiment  of  Pennsylvania  Vol¬ 
unteers;  Colonel  Max  Freedman,  of  the  Fifth 
Pennsylvania  Cavalry ;  Lieutenant-Colonel  Israel 
Moses,  of  Sickles’  Brigade;  Isaac  Moses,  adju¬ 
tant-general  of  the  Third  Army  Corps  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac;  Colonel  H.  A.  Seligson, 
of  Vermont,  Lieutenant- Colonel  Leopold  C. 
Newman,  to  whose  dying  bed  President  Lincoln 
brought  his  commission  promoting  him  to  the 
rank  of  brigadier-general;  Colonel  Ansel  Ham- 
berg,  of  the  Twelfth  Pennsylvania  Infantry; 
Abraham  Hart,  brigade-adjutant-general  of 
the  Seventy-third  Pennsylvania  Infantry ;  Elias 
Leon  Hyneman  of  the  Fifth  Pennsylvania  Cav¬ 
alry;  Captain  Joseph  Greenhut,  Lieutenant  Max 
Sachs,  who  was  killed  at  Bowling  Green;  Col¬ 
onel  H.  Newbold,  of  the  Fourteenth  Iowa, 
killed  at  Red  River;  Adolph  A.  Meyer,  inspec- 


100  JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 

tor-general,  by  special  appointment  of  President 
Lincoln,  transferred  from  New  Mexico  to  Penn¬ 
sylvania  ;  David  Manheim,  Colonel  First  Nevada 
Cavalry;  Herman  Bendell,  surgeon  Eighty -sixth 
New  York  Infantry,  brevetted  lieutenant-colonel 
for  meritorious  and  honorable  conduct;  Adju¬ 
tant  Abraham  Cohn, of  New  Hampshire;  Captain 
A.  Goldman,  of  Maine;  Sergeant  Leopold  Kar- 
pelles,  of  Massachusetts.  Sergeant-Major  Al¬ 
exander  M.  Appel,  of  Iowa;  David  A.  Brau- 
ski,  Henry  Heller,  Abraham  Gumwalt,  and 
Isaac  Gans,  of  Ohio,  are  a  few  names  of  Jews 
who  distinguished  themselves  upon  the  battle¬ 
fields  of  the  war  for  the  Union. 

JEWS  AND  AMERICAN  ANTISLAVERY  MOVEMENT. 

In  the  political  movements  for  the  abolition 
of  slavery  the  Jews  took  a  leading  part  in  creat¬ 
ing  public  opinion.  As  early  as  1853,  a  fugitive 
negro  arrested  by  a  United  States  marshal, 
was  liberated  by  a  crowd  of  citizens,  led  by 
Michael  Greenbaum,  and  on  the  evening  of  the 
same  day  a  big  meeting  was  held  to  ratify  that 
act.  The  first  official  call  to  organize  the  aboli¬ 
tion  movement  was  signed  by  George  Schneider, 
Adolpe  Loeb,  Julius  Bosenthal,  Leopold  Mayer, 
and  a  cigar  dealer  named  Hanson,  four  Jews 


THE  JEW  AS  AN  AMERICAN  PATRIOT,  101 

among  the  five  leaders  of  the  German  popu¬ 
lation  of  Chicago  in  a  great  political  move¬ 
ment. 

In  the  columns  of  the  New  York  Tribune , 
Michael  Heilprin,  who  had  previous  to  his  com¬ 
ing  to  America  shown  his  love  of  liberty  as  a 
member  of  Kossuth’s  civil  staff  during  the  Hun¬ 
garian  Revolution,  vigorously  exonerated  the 
Old  Testament  from  favoring  slavery.  Dr.  Ed¬ 
ward  Moritz,  of  the  Philadelphia  Democrat; 
Rabbi  Samuel  M.  Isaacs,  as  preacher  and  editor 
of  the  Jewish  Messenger ;  Rabbi  Liebman  Adler, 
in  Detroit;  Dr.  Horwitz,  in  Cleveland;  and  Dr. 
Felsenthal  in  Chicago,  were  sowing  the  seeds  of 
liberty. 

Rabbi  Sobato  Morais,  on  account  of  his  anti¬ 
slavery  sentiments,  was  elected  an  honorary 
member  of  the  Union  League  Club  of  Philadel¬ 
phia,  an  honor  he  shared  with  Rev.  Dr.  David 
Einhorn,  who  in  1856,  came  to  pro-slavery 
Baltimore  from  Austria,  where  his  temple 
had  been  closed  against  him  by  the  imperial 
government,  on  account  of  his  alleged  revolu¬ 
tionary  utterances,  from  the  sacred  desk  of 
the  Har  Sinai  Congregation,  with  fiery  elo¬ 
quence,  and  in  his  Sinai ,  a  German  monthly,  in 
unanswerable  arguments,  he  poured  forth  shot 
and  shell  from  the  Old  Testament  armory  into 


103 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


the  ranks  of  the  advocates  of  slavery  and  the 
time-serving  attitude  of  the  churches,  until 
driven  out  of  the  city  and  his  return  prohibited 
under  martial  law. 

Dr.  Einhorn,  in  Baltimore  and  later  in  Phil¬ 
adelphia,  did  as  much  as  any  man  of  his  day  to 
create  the  public  sentiment  which  shivered  that 
colossal  iniquity.  In  New  York,  Judge  Philip 
J.  Joachimsen,  as  Assistant  United  States  Dis¬ 
trict  Attorney,  vigorously  prosecuted  certain 
slave  dealers.  Moritz  Pinner,  on  January  1, 
1859,  began  the  issue  of  an  abolitionist  paper, 
the  Kansas  Post ,  at  Kansas  City.  As  delegate 
to  the  National  Republican  Convention,  he  with 
other  Jews,  like  Judge  Dittenhoefer  of  New 
York,  worked  earnestly  among  the  Germans  for 
the  nomination  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Rear-Admiral  Preble,  in  his  “History  of  the 
Flag  of  the  United  States  of  America,”  tells  the 
following  incident  showing  Jewish  feeling  on 
the  slavery  question  and  their  loyalty  to  the 
Union: 

“On  the  11th  day  of  February,  1861,  Mr.  Lin¬ 
coln,  the  President-elect  of  the  United  States, 
left  his  home  in  Springfield,  Illinois,  for  the  seat 
of  government,  accompanied  by  a  few  friends. 
His  fellow-citizens  and  neighbors  gathered  at 
the  railway  station  to  wish  him  Godspeed.  He 


THE  JEW  AS  AN  AMERICAN  PATRIOT.  103 

was  affected  by  this  kind  attention,  and  ad¬ 
dressed  the  assembly  of  his  friends  in  a  few 
words,  requesting  they  would  all  pray  that  he 
might  receive  the  divine  assistance  in  the  re¬ 
sponsibilities  he  was  about  to  encounter,  with¬ 
out  which  he  who  could  not  succeed,  but  with 
which  success  was  certain.  Before  leaving 
Springfield  he  received  from  Abraham  Kohn, 
City  Clerk  of  Chicago,  a  fine  picture  of  the  flag 
of  the  Union,  bearing  an  inscription  in  Hebrew 
on  its  folds.  The  verses  being  the  fourth  to 
the  ninth  of  the  first  chapter  of  Joshua,  in 
which  Joshua  was  commanded  to  reign  over  a 
whole  land,  the  first  verse  being:  “Have  I  not 
commanded  thee?  Be  strong  and  of  good  cour¬ 
age;  be  not  afraid,  neither  be  thou  dismayed; 
for  the  Lord  thy  God  is  with  thee  whithersoever 
thou  goest.” 

.Referring  to  this  incident  some  time  ago, 
President  William  McKinley  said:  “Could  any¬ 
thing  have  given  Mr.  Lincoln  more  cheer,  or 
been  better  calculated  to  sustain  his  courage  or 
to  strengthen  his  faith  in  the  mighty  work  be¬ 
fore  him?  Thus  commanded,  thus  assured,  Mr. 
Lincoln  journeyed  to  the  capital,  where  he  took 
the  oath  of  office  and  registered  in  heaven  an 
oath  to  save  the  Union.  And  the  Lord,  our 
God,  was  with  him,  until  every  obligation  of 


104 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


oath  and  duty  was  sacredly  kept  and  honored. 
Not  any  man  was  able  to  stand  before  him. 
Liberty  was  the  more  firmly  enthroned,  the 
Union  was  saved,  and  the  flag  which  he  carried 
floated  in  triumph  and  glory  from  every  flag¬ 
staff1  of  the  Republic.” 

THE  SPANISH  AMERICAN  WAR. 

The  records  of  the  War  Department  show 
that  there  were  over  4,000  Hebrews  in  the 
American  armies  during  the  war  with  Spain, 
more  than  4,000  furloughs  were  granted  by  the 
War  Department  to  such  soldiers  as  desired  to 
celebrate  Rosh  Hashanah  and  Yom  Kippur  at 
home.  Captain  A.  W.  Murray,  who  has  been  at 
the  department  looking  up  statistics  on  this 
subject,  stated  that  a  careful  perusal  of  the 
muster  rolls  of  the  armv  is  sufficient  refutation 
of  the  assertion  made  by  certain  uninformed 
and  prejudiced  persons  that  the  Jewish  people 
were  not  patriotic  Americans. 

“When  war  was  declared,”  he  said,  “the  Jew¬ 
ish  press  throughout  the  country  reminded  their 
people  of  the  wanton  persecution  of  the  Hebrews 
by  Spain,  covering  many  years.  They  had  been 
driven  from  their  country  and  deprived  of  their 
property  by  the  cruel,  unjust  Spaniards.  The 


THE  JEW  AS  AN  AMERICAN  PATRIOT.  105 

young  Hebrew  men  did  not  require  urging. 
Their  love  for  America  alone  was  enough  and 
they  flocked  to  the  standard  of  liberty,  the 
Stars  and  Stripes.” 

It  is  a  matter  of  history  that  they  fought  as 
bravely  before  Manila  and  Santiago  de  Cuba  as 
they  did  at  Leipsic  and  Waterloo;  under  Kos¬ 
suth  and  Garibaldi;  before  Sebastopol,  Sadowa 
and  Sedan.  The  first  man  to  fall  in  the  attack 
on  Manila  was  Sergeant  Maurice  Justh,  of  the 
First  California  Volunteers  (which  regiment 
numbered  100  Jews).  Theodore  Roosevelt,  the 
intrepid  leader  of  the  Rough  Riders,  declared 
that  in  that  brave  regiment,  which  has  chal¬ 
lenged  the  admiration  of  the  world,  the  most 
astonishing  courage  was  displayed  by  the  seven 
Jewish  Rough  Riders,  one  of  whom  became  a 
lieutenant.  The  Astor  Battery  numbered  ten 
Jews  among  their  ninety-nine  men.  Fifteen  Jews 
went  down  to  death  in“The  Maine, ’’destroyed  in 
the  harbor  of  Havana,  the  most  infamous  in  all 
the  world,  and  there  was  not  an  engagement 
during  the  war  with  Spain  in  which  Hebrews 
did  not  take  part,  and  many  Jewish  names  ap¬ 
pear  on  the  list  of  killed  and  wounded,  and  the 
much-maligned  Russian  Jews  furnished  more 
than  double  their  share  of  volunteers.  Lieuten¬ 
ant-Commander  Marix,  of  the  navy,  a  Hebrew, 


106 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW 


was  Judge  Advocate  of  the  Maine  Disaster 
Board  of  Inquiry,  and  many  cases  could  be  cited 
where  Americans  of  Hebrew  extraction  per¬ 
formed  gallant  and  meritorious  service  under 
the  flag. 


The  Jew  in  the  Arts. 


One  beautiful  June  evening  in  Paris  I  strolled  with  a  friend 
into  a  cafe  on  the  Boulevard.  We  had  been  to  hear  “Robert  le 
Diable  ”  at  the  French  Opera,  and  gayly  humming  and  gossiping 
we  sat  upon  the  broad  walk  that  was  still  thronged  on  the  still 
summer  night.  Presently  a  dark-haired  man  came  quietly 
along  and  seated  himself  at  a  table  near  by.  He  was  alone,  and 
seemed  not  to  care  for  recognition.  He  was  simply  dressed  and 
was  entirely  unnoticeable  except  for  the  strong  Jewish  lines  in 
his  intellectual  face.  My  companion  whispered,  “That  is  the 
man  to  whom  we  owe  the  delight  of  this  evening ;  that  is  Meyer¬ 
beer.  ”  After  a  little  while  he  added  with  feeling,  “How  much  we 
owe  to  the  Jews  and  how  mean  Christendom  is.” 

It  was  remarkable  how  much  of  the  conspicuous  work  and  in  ¬ 
fluence  of  that  evening  was  due  to  the  genius  of  a  people  whose 
name  is  so  constantly  used  as  a  word  of  reproach.  A  few  months 
before,  Felix  Mendelssohn  had  been  buried  in  Leipsic,  and  in  Ber¬ 
lin  I  had  heard  the  memorial  concert  of  his  music  at  the  Sing- 
Akademie.  Rossini  was  still  living,  and  Verdi  was  writing 
operas,  but  Mendelsshon  and  Meyerbeer  were  the  recognized 
masters  of  music.  The  evening  before,  I  had  seen  the  Jewish 
Rachel  in  “Phedre” — the  one  woman  who  contests  the  laurel 
with  Mrs.  Siddons,  and  who  was  then  the  greatest  living  actress. 
Beyond  the  channel,  Disraeli,  the  child  of  Spanish  Jews,  was  just 
about  to  kiss  hands  as  chancellor  of  the  exchequer,  and  to  be¬ 
come  the  political  leader  of  the  British  Tories.  While  in  Paris 
and  London  and  Frankfurt  and  Vienna  the  great  masters  of  the 
mainsprings  of  industrial  activity,  the  capitalists,  who  held  peace 
and  war  in  their  hands,  and  by  whose  favor  kings  rule,  were 
Jews.  The  philosophy,  the  art,  the  industry,  the  politics  of 
Christendom  were  full  of  the  Jewish  genius,  the  gayety  of 
nations,  the  delight  of  scholars,  the  scepters  of  princes,  the 
movements  of  civilization,  hung  in  great  degree  upon  it.  It  is  as 
true  to-day  as  in  that  long  summer  night,  and  the  words  of  my 
friend  are  still  as  shamefully  true:  “How  mean  Christendom 
is!” — George  William  Curtis. 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  ARTS. 


109 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  JEW  IN  THE  ARTS. 

AS  POETS. 

The  long  line  of  Spanish  poets  culminates  in 
Jehuda  Halevi,  who  was  born  in  1085,  in  Castile 
in  Spain,  where  the  Jews  formed  the  center  of 
the  most  cultivated  society.  Skilled  as  a 
physician  and  profound  as  a  philosopher,  his 
varied  genius  manifested  itself  most  conspicu¬ 
ously  in  verse.  His  greatest  poem  deals  with 
his  own  belief  and  the  sorrows  of  his  people. 

Sclileiden  says:  “In  the  whole  compass  of 
religious  poetry,  Milton’s  and  Klopstock’s  not 
excepted,  nothing  can  be  found  to  surpass  the 
‘Elegy  of  Zion.’  This  soul-stirring  Lay  of 
Zion,’  better  than  a  critical  dissertation  will 
give  the  reader  a  clear  insight  into  the  character 
and  spirit  of  Jewish  poetry  during  the  Middle 
Ages: 

O  Zion!  of  thine  exiles’  peace  take  thought, 

The  remnant  of  thy  flock,  who  thine  have  sought ! 

From  west,  from  east,  from  north  and  south  resounds, 

Afar  and  now  anear,  from  all  thy  bounds, 

And  no  surcease, 

“With  thee  be  peace!” 


110 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


In  longing  j  fetters  chained  I  greet  thee,  too. 

My  tears  fast  welling  forth  like  Hermon’s  dew — 

O  bliss  could  they  but  drop  on  holy  hills ! 

A  croaking  bird  I  turn,  when  through  me  thrills 
Thy  desolate  state;  but  when  I  dream  anon, 

The  Lord  brings  back  thy  ev’ry  captive  son — 

A  harp  straightway 
To  sing  thy  lay. 

In  heart  I  dwell  where  once  thy  purest  son 
At  Bethel  and  Peniel,  triumphs  won ; 

God’s  awesome  presence  there  was  close  to  thee 
Whose  doors  thy  Maker,  by  divine  decree. 

Opposed  as  mates 
To  heaven’s  gates. 

Nor  sun,  nor  moon,  nor  stars  had  need  to  be 
God’s  countenance  alone  illumined  thee 
On  whose  elect  he  poured  his  spirit  out. 

In  thee  would  I  my  soul  pour  forth  devout! 

Thou  wert  the  kingdom’s  seat,  of  God  the  throne, 
And  now  there  dwells  a  slave  race,  not  thine  own. 

In  royal  state, 

Where  reigned  thy  great. 

O  would  that  I  could  roam  o’er  ev’ry  place 
Where  God  to  missioned  prophets  showed  His  grace ! 
And  who  will  give  me  wings?  An  off’ring  meet, 

I’d  haste  to  lay  upon  thy  shattered  seat, 

Thy  counterpart — 

My  bruised  heart. 

Upon  thy  precious  ground  I’d  fall  prostrate, 

Thy  stones  caress,  the  dust  within  thy  gate, 

And  happiness  it  were  in  awe  to  stand 
At  Hebron’s  graves,  the  treasures  of  thy  land, 

And  greet  thy  woods,  thy  vine-clad  slopes,  thy  vales. 
Greet  Abarim  and  Hor,  whose  light  ne’er  pales, 

A  radiant  crown, 

Thy  priests’  renown. 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  ARTS. 


Ill 


Thy  air  is  balm  for  souls ;  like  myrrh  thy  sand ; 

With  honey  run  the  rivers  of  thy  land, 

Though  bare  my  feet,  my  heart’s  delight  I’d  count 
To  thread  my  way  all  o’er  thy  desert  mount, 

Where  once  rose  tall 
Thy  holy  hall. 

Where  stood  thy  treasure-ark,  in  recess  dim, 

Close- curtained,  guarded  o’er  by  cherubim. 

My  Naz’rite’s  crown  would  I  pluck  off,  and  cast 
It  gladly  forth.  With  curses  would  I  blast 
The  impious  time  thy  people,  diadem-crowned, 

Thy  Nazarites,  did  pass,  by  en’mies  bound 
With  hatred’s  hands, 

In  unclean  lands. 

By  dogs  thy  lusty  lions  are  brutal  torn 

And  dragged ;  thy  strong,  young  eaglets,  heav’nward  borne. 
By  foul  mouthed  ravens  snatched,  and  all  undone. 

Can  food  still  tempt  my  taste  ?  Can  light  of  sun 
Seem  fair  to  shine 
To  eyes  like  mine  ? 

Soft,  soft !  Leave  off  a  while,  O  cup  of  pain ! 

My  loins  are  weighted  down,  my  heart  and  brain, 

With  bitterness  from  thee.  Whene’er  I  think 
Of  Oholah,  proud  northern  queen,  I  drink 
Thy  wrath,  and  when  my  Oholivah  forlorn 
Comes  back  to  mind — ’tis  then  I  quail  thy  scorn, 

Then  draught  of  pain, 

Thy  lees  I  drain. 

O  Zion !  Crown  of  grace !  Thy  comeliness 
Hath  ever  favor  won  and  fond  caress. 

Thy  faithful  lovers’  lives  are  bound  in  thine; 

They  joy  in  thy  security,  but  pine 
And  weep  in  gloom 
O’er  thy  sad  doom. 

From  out  the  prisoner’s  cell  they  sigh  for  thee, 

And  each  in  prayer,  wherever  he  may  be, 

Towards  thy  demolished  portals  turns.  Exiled, 

Dispersed  from  mount  to  hill,  thy  flock  defiled 


112 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


Hath  not  forgot  thy  sheltering  fold.  They  grasp 
Thy  garment’s  hem,  and  trustful,  eager,  clasp, 

With  outstretched  arms, 

Thy  branching  palms. 

Shinar,  Pathros — can  they  in  majesty 
With  thee  compare  ?  Or  their  idolatry 
With  thy  Urim  and  thy  Thummim  august  ? 

Who  can  surpass  thy  priests,  thy  saintly  just, 

Thy  prophets  bold, 

And  bards  of  old  ? 

The  heathen  kingdoms  change  and  wholly  cease— 

Thy  might  alone  stands  firm  without  decrease. 

Thy  Nazarites  from  age  to  age  abide, 

Thy  God  in  thee  desireth  to  reside. 

Then  happy  he  who  maketh  choice  of  thee 
To  dwell  within  thy  courts,  and  waits  to  see, 

And  toils  to  make, 

Thy  light  awake. 

On  him  shall  as  the  morning  break  thy  light, 

The  bliss  of  thy  elect  shall  glad  his  sight. 

In  thy  felicities  shall  he  rejoice, 

In  triumph  sweet  exult,  with  jubilant  voice, 

O’er  thee,  adored, 

To  youth  restored. 

Heine,  who  was  capable  of  appreciating  the 
beauty  of  Halevi’s  Hebrew  verses,  gives  this 
account  of  the  noble  singer : 


Ah !  he  was  the  greatest  poet, 
Torch  and  starlight  to  his  age, 
Beacon-light  to  his  people ; 

Such  a  mighty  and  a  wondrous 

Pillar  of  poetic  fire, 

Led  the  caravan  of  sorrow 

Of  his  people  Israel 

Through  the  desert  of  their  exile. 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  ARTS. 


113 


Pure  and  truthful,  fair  and  blameless. 
Was  his  song,  and  thus  his  soul  was. 
When  the  Lord  that  soul  created, 

With  great  joy  His  work  beheld  He, 

And  He  kissed  that  soul  of  beauty. 

Of  His  kiss  the  fair  faint  echo 
Thrills  through  each  song  of  Halevi, 

By  the  Lord’s  grace  sanctified. 

As  in  life,  so  in  our  singi  ag, 

Highest  gift  of  all  is  grace — 

Holding  this,  he  never  falters, 

Not  in  prose  nor  yet  in  verses, 

Such  we  call  a  genius, 

By  the  grace  of  God  a  poet : 
Irresponsible  his  kingdom, 

O’er  the  thought-world  ruling,  reigning, 

Gives  account  but  to  the  Godhead, 

Not  the  people,  for  in  art 
As  in  life  the  people  can  but 
Slay,  yet  never  can  they  judge  us. 

And  the  hero  whom  we  sing  of, 

He  Yehuda  Ben  Halevi, 

Had  of  all  one  lady  chosen — 

Yet  she  was  of  different  moulding. 

She  was  not  a  favored  Laura, 

Whose  fair  eyes,  mere  mortal  starlight, 
In  the  duomo  on  Good  Friday 
Spread  the  famous  conflagration. 

Nor  was  she  a  chatelaine 
Who  presided  at  the  tourneys 
In  her  flower  of  youth  and  beauty, 

And  distributed  the  laurel. 

No  fair  barrister  of  kiss- right 
Was  she,  not  a  wise  professor 
Who  did  lecture  in  the  college 
Of  a  court  of  love  right  wisely — 


114 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


She,  the  fair  love  of  the  rabbi 
Was  a  poor  and  saddened  sweetheart, 

Was  destruction’s  woeful  image 
And  was  named  Jerusalem. 

By  Halevi’s  side  stands  Solomon  Ibn  Gabirol 
(1021-70),  that 

Human  nightingale  that  warbled 
Forth  her  songs  of  tender  love, 

In  the  darkness  of  the  sombre, 

Gothic  mediaeval  night. 

She,  that  nightingale,  sang  only. 

Sobbing  forth  her  adoration 
To  her  Lord,  her  God  in  heaven, 

Whom  her  songs  of  praise  extols. — Heine. 


Passing  by  the  long  line  of  Italian  poets  like 
Rachel  Morpurgo  (1790-1871),  Sarah  Copia  Sul- 
lam  (1600-41),  Deborah  Ascarelli,  S.  Ramanelli, 
and  the  late  David  Levi,  the  poet  and  philoso¬ 
pher  of  Turin,  let  us  turn  to  Austria  which 
boasts  of  four  Jewish  poets — L.  A.  Frankl 
(1810-94),  ( Ritter  von  Hochivarth ),  Karl  Beck 
(1817-79),  L.  Wihl  (b.  1817),  and  L.  Kalisch 
(1814-82) ;  France,  Eugene  Manuel  (b.  1828) ;  Den¬ 
mark,  Henrik  Hertz  (1798-1870);  Hungary, 
Ignaz  Acsady. 

The  first  Jewish  poet  to  write  in  German  was 
E.  M.  Kuh  (1828-76),  whose  tragic  fate  has  been 
told  by  Auerbach  in  his  “Dichter  und  Kauf- 
mann.”  Solomon  Ludwig  Steinheim  (1790- 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  ARTS.  115 

1866),  Sel  Heller  (“Ahasver”),  (1831-92),  Th. 
Creizenach  (1817-77),  M.  Hartmann  (1821-72), 
S.  H.  Mosenthal  (1821-77),  Henriette  Otten- 
heimer  (b.  1807),  M.  Sachs  (1808-64),  and  Moritz 
Eapoport,  sing  the  songs  of  Zion  in  German. 
Among  the  German  Jewish  poets  Heine  easily 
ranks  first. 

Heinrich  Heine,  born  in  Diisseldorf,  Decem¬ 
ber  12th  (or  13th),  1799,  he  just  missed,  as  he 
said,  being  one  of  the  first  men  of  the  century. 
His  father  was  a  wealthy  merchant,  and  his 
mother  a  Van  Geldern,  daughter  of  a  famous 
physician  and  statesman.  As  at  that  time  in 
Germany  all  the  learned  professions  were  closed 
to  Jews,  and  desiring  to  follow  the  law,  he  sub¬ 
mitted  in  his  twenty -sixth  year  to  baptism,  the 
baptismal  registry  reading  “Johann  Christian 
Heine,”  names  he  never  made  use  of  as  a  writer 
— doubtless  to  show  his  contempt  for  his  en¬ 
forced  apostasy.  His  sympathy  with  the 
French  Revolutionists,  who  made  it  possible 
for  the  Jews  in  Germany  to  find  activities  for  the 
exercise  of  their  talents,  and  his  satiric  pamph¬ 
let  against  the  nobility  in  1830,  made  him  feel 
that  he  would  be  safer  out  of  Germany,  and  in 
1831  he  moved  to  Paris,  and  though  for  twenty- 
five  years  thoroughly  in  sympathy  with  every¬ 
thing  French,  he  never  forgot  that  he  was  a 


116 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


German,  and  never  lost  his  love  for  the  Father- 
land,  as  these  well  known  lines  testify: 


I  am  a  German  poet 
Of  goodly  German  fame-. 

Where  their  best  names  are  spoken, 

Mine  own  they  are  sure  to  name. 

Goethe  and  Heine  are  acknowledged  the  chief 
exponents  of  German  lyric  poetry.  Matthew 
Arnold,  the  English  critic,  goes  so  far  as  to  term 
Heine  the  “most  important  German  succes¬ 
sor  and  continuator  of  Goethe  in  Goethe’s  most 
important  line  of  activity.’’  He  was  a  soldier  in 
the  intellectual  war  of  liberation  which  has 
freed  European  thought  from  its  mediaeval 
shackles. 


SELECTIONS  FROM  HEINE. 

THE  LORELEI. 

I  know  not  whence  it  rises, 

This  thought  so  full  of  woe. 

But  a  tale  of  times  departed 
Haunts  me,  and  will  not  go. 

The  air  is  cool,  and  it  darkens, 

And  calmly  flows  the  Rhine, 

The  mountain  peaks  are  sparkling 
In  the  sunny  evening- shine. 

And  yonder  sits  a  maiden, 

The  fairest  of  the  fair 

With  gold  is  her  garments  glittering, 
As  she  combs  her  golden  hair ; 


117 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  ARTS. 

With  a  golden  comb  she  combs  it; 

And  a  wild  song  singeth  she, 

That  melts  the  heart  with  a  wondrous 
And  powerful  melody. 

The  boatman  feels  his  bosom 
With  a  nameless  longing  move; 

He  sees  not  the  gulf  before  him, 

His  gaze  is  fixed  above. 

Till  over  the  boat  and  boatman. 

The  Rhine’s  deep  waters  run. 

And  this,  with  her  magic  singing, 

The  Lorelei  has  done ! 

— From  the  Edinburgh  Review. 


GOLD. 

Say,  my  golden  ducats,  say, 

Whither  are  ye  fled  away  ? 

Are  ye  with  the  golden  fishes 
In  the  little  rushing  river, 

Gayly  darting  hither,  thither  ? 

Are  ye  with  the  golden  blossoms 
On  the  meadows  green  and  fair, 

Sparkling  in  the  dewy  air? 

Are  ye  with  the  golden  songsters 
Sweeping  through  the  azure  sky, 

Flashing  splendor  to  the  eye  ? 

Are  ye  with  the  golden  stars 
Clusters  of  refulgent  light, 

Smiling  through  the  summer  night  ? 
Well-a-day!  my  golden  ducats 
Do  not  in  the  river  lie, 

Do  not  sparkle  in  the  dew, 

Do  not  flash  across  the  blue, 

Do  not  twinkle  in  the  sky. 

But  my  creditors  can  tell 
Where  my  golden  ducats  dwell. 

— Translation  of  Ernest  Beard. 


118 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW 

GOTTINGEN. 

Black  dress  coats  and  silken  stockings, 

Snowy  ruffles  frilled  with  art, 

Gentle  speeches  and  embraces 
Oh,  if  they  but  held  a  heart ! 

Held  a  heart  within  their  bosom, 

Warmed  by  love  which  truly  glows; 

Ah !  I’m  wearied  with  their  chanting 
Of  imagined  lover’s  woes! 

I  will  climb  upon  the  mountains, 

Where  the  quiet  cabin  stands, 

Where  the  wind  blows  freely  o’er  us, 

Where  the  heart  at  ease  expands. 

I  will  climb  upon  the  mountains, 

Where  the  dark-green  fir  trees  grow ; 

Brooks  are  rustling,  birds  are  singing. 

And  the  wild  clouds  headlong  go. 

Then  farewell,  ye  polished  ladies, 

Polished  men  and  polished  hall ! 

I  will  climb  upon  the  mountain, 

Smiling  down  upon  you  all. 

— From  “  The  Hartz  Journey .”  Translated  by  Charles  G.  Leland. 


PEACE. 

High  in  the  heavens  there  stood  the  sun 
Cradled  in  snowy  clouds, 

The  sea  was  still, 

And  musing  I  lay  at  the  helm  of  the  ship, 
Dreamily  musing — and  half  in  waking 
And  half  in  slumber,  I  gazed  upon  Christ, 
The  Saviour  of  man. 

In  streaming  and  snowy  garment 
He  wander’d  giant-great, 

Over  land  and  sea; 

His  head  reach’d  high  to  the  heavens, 

His  hands  he  stretch’d  out  in  blessing 
Over  land  and  sea ; 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  ARTS. 


119 


And  as  a  heart  in  his  bosom 
Bore  he  the  sun, 

The  sun  all  ruddy  and  flaming, 

And  the  ruddy  and  flaming  sunny-heart 
Shed  its  beams  of  mercy, 

And  its  beauteous,  bliss -giving  light. 

Lighting  and  warming 
Over  land  and  sea. 

Sounds  of  bells  were  solemnly  drawing 
Here  and  there,  like  swans  were  drawing 
By  rosy  hands  the  gliding  ship, 

And  drew  it  sportively  toward  the  green  shore, 
Where  men  were  dwelling,  in  high  and  turreted 
O’erhanging  town. 

O  blessing  of  peace !  How  still  the  town ! 

Hushed  was  the  hollow  sound 
Of  busy  and  sweltering  trade, 

And  through  the  clean  and  echoing  streets 
Were  passing  men  in  white  attire, 

Palm-branches  bearing, 

And  when  two  chanced  to  meet, 

They  view’d  each  other  with  inward  intelligence, 
And  trembling,  in  love  and  sweet  denial, 

Kiss’d  on  the  forehead  each  other, 

And  gazed  up  on  high 
At  the  Saviour’s  sunny-heart 
Which,  glad  and  atoningly 
Beam’d  down  its  ruddy  blood, 

And  three  times  blest,  thus  spake  they : 

"Praised  be  Jesus  Christ!” 

— Translation  of  E.  A.  Bowring. 


SUNSET. 

The  glowing  ruddy  sun  descends 
Down  to  the  far  up-shuddering 
Silvery -gray  world-ocean  • 

Airy  images,  rosily  breath’d  upon, 

After  him  roll,  and  over  against  him, 

Out  of  the  autumnal  glimmering  veil  of  clouds, 


120 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  TEW. 


With  face  all  mournful  and  pale  as  death, 
Bursteth  forth  the  moon, 

And  behind  her,  like  sparks  of  light, 

Misty — broad — glimmer  the  stars. 

Once  in  the  heavens  there  glitter’d, 

Join’d  in  fond  union, 

Luna  the  goddess  and  Sol  the  god, 

And  around  them  the  stars  all  cluster’d, 
Their  little,  innocent  children. 

But  evil  tongues  then  whisper’d  disunion, 
And  they  parted  in  anger, 

That  glorious,  radiant  pair. 

Now  in  the  daytime,  in  splendor  all  lonely, 
Wanders  the  Sun-god  in  realms  on  high-- 
On  account  of  his  majesty 
Greatly  sung-to  and  worshipp’d 
By  haughty,  bliss-harden’d  mortals. 

But  in  the  night-time, 

In  heaven  wanders  Luna, 

Unhappy  mother, 

With  all  her  orphan’d  starry  children. 

And  she  gleams  in  silent  sorrow, 

And  loving  maidens  and  gentle  poets 
Devote  to  her  tears  and  songs. 

The  gentle  Luna !  womanly  minded, 

Still  doth  she  love  her  beautiful  spouse. 
Toward  the  evening,  trembling  and  pale. 
Peeps  she  forth  from  the  light  clouds  aror  nd, 
And  looks  at  the  parting  one  mournfully, 
And  fain  would  cry  in  her  anguish :  “  Come! 
Come !  the  children  all  long  for  thee — ” 

But  the  disdainful  Sun-god, 

At  the  sight  of  his  spouse  ’gins  glowing 
With  still  deeper  purple, 

In  anger  and  grief, 

And  inflexibly  hastens  he 

Down  to  his  flood- chill’d  widow’d  bed.  . 

Evil  and  backbiting  tcngues 
Thus  brought  grief  and  destruction 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  ARTS. 


121 


E’en  ’mongst  the  godheads  immortal. 

And  the  poor  godheads,  yonder  in  heaven, 

Wander  in  misery, 

Comfortless  over  their  endless  tracks, 

And  death  cannot  reach  them, 

And  with  them  tney  trail 
Their  bright  desolation. 

But  I,  the  mere  man, 

The  lowly-planted,  the  blest-with-death-one, 

I  sorrow  no  longer. 

— Translation  of  E.  A.  Bowring. 


IT  GOES  OUT. 

The  curtain  falls,  as  ends  the  play, 

And  all  the  audience  go  away ; 

And  did  the  price  give  satisfact'on  ? 

Methinks  they  found  it  of  attraction. 

A  much  respected  public  then 
Its  poet  thankfully  commended; 

But  now  the  house  is  hushed  again, 

And  lights  and  merriment  are  ended. 

But  hark  to  that  dull  heavy  clang 
Heard  by  the  empty  stage’s  middle! 

It  was  perhaps  the  bursting  twang 
Of  the  worn  string  of  some  old  fiddle. 

Witn  rustling  noise  across  the  pit 
Some  nasty  rats  like  shadows  flit. 

And  rancid  oil  all  places  smell  of, 

And  the  last  lamp,  with  groans  and  sighs 
Despairing,  then  goes  out  and  dies. — 

My  soul  was  this  poor  light  I  tell  of. 

— Translation  of  E.  A.  Bowring. 


AN  OLD  SONG, 

Thou  art  dead  and  thou  knowest  it  not, 

The  light  of  thine  eye  is  quench  d  and  forgot, 
Thy  rosy  mouth  is  pallid  forever, 

And  thou  art  dead,  and  wilt  live  again  never. 


122 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


’Twas  in  a  dreary  midsummer  night, 

I  bore  thee  myself  to  the  grave  outright ; 

The  nightingales  and  their  soft  lamentations. 

And  after  us  followed  the  bright  constellations. 

As  through  the  forest  the  train  moved  along, 

They  made  it  resound  with  the  litany’s  song, 

The  firs  in  their  mantles  of  mourning  veiled  closely, 

The  prayers  for  the  dead  repeated  morosely. 

And  as  o’er  the  willowy  lake  we  flew 
The  elfins  were  dancing  full  in  our  view. 

They  suddenly  stopped  in  wondering  fashion, 

And  seemed  to  regard  us  with  looks  of  compassion. 

And  when  we  had  reached  the  grave,  full  soon 
From  out  of  the  heavens  descended  the  moon, 

And  preached  a  sermon,  midst  tears  and  condoling 
While  in  the  distance  the  bells  were  tolling. 

— Translation  of  E.  A.  Bowring. 


The  academy  of  poetry,  originating  in  Am¬ 
sterdam,  in  1676,  was  directed  by  Manuel  de 
Belmonte,  a  Jew,  whose  pride  of  race  was  grati¬ 
fied  by  Isabella  Correa,  one  of  the  most  promi¬ 
nent  members  of  the  association,  whose  fine 
translation  from  Italian  into  Spanish  of  Guarini’s 
“Pastor  Fido,”  achieved  for  her  a  European 
reputation. 

Among  the  poets  of  England  may  be  named 
Manuela  Nunez  d’ Almeida,  born  1720;  Ben- 
venida  Cohen  Belmonte,  born  1720;  Isaac  Gom- 
pertz  (1774-1856);  Emma  Henry  (1788-70); 
Moses  Mendez  (died  1758);  and  Sara  de  Fonseca 
y  Pimentel,  born  1733;  and  among  America’s 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  ARTS. 


123 


numerous  writers  of  verse  may  be  named  first 
of  all  Emma  Lazarus  (1849-87),  Peninah  Moise, 
Miriam  Del  Banco,  Nina  Morais-Cohen,  Cora 
Wilburn,  Dr.  S.  Solis-Cohen,  Mary  Cohen,  Re- 
bekah  Hyneman  and  Morris  Rosenfeld. 

THE  BANNER  OF  THE  JEW. 

Wake,  Israel,  wake!  Recall  to-day 
The  glorious  Maccabean  rage, 

The  sire  heroic,  hoary-gray, 

His  fivefold  lion — lineage : 

The  Wise,  the  Elect,  the  Help-of-God, 

The  Burst-of -Spring,  the  Avenging  Rod. 

From  Mizpah’s  mountain  ridge— -they  saw 
Jerusalem’s  empty  streets,  her  shrine 
Laid  waste  where  Greeks  profaned  the  Law, 

With  idol  and  with  pagan  sign. 

Mourners  in  tattered  black  were  there, 

With  ashes  sprinkled  on  their  hair. 

Then  from  the  stony  peak  there  rang 
A  blast  to  ope  the  graves :  down  poured 
The  Maccabean  clan,  who  sang 
Their  .battle-anthem  to  the  Lord. 

Five  heroes  lead,  and  following,  see 
Ten  thousand  rush  to  victory ! 

Oh  for  Jerusalem’s  trumpet  now, 

To  blow  a  blast  of  shattering  power, 

To  wake  the  sleepers  high  and  low, 

And  rouse  them  to  the  urgent  hour! 

No  hand  for  vengeance — but  to  save, 

A  million  naked  swords  should  wave. 

Oh,  deem  not  dead  that  martial  fire, 

Say  not  the  mystic  flame  is  spent ! 

With  Moses’  law  and  David’s  lyre, 

Your  ancient  strength  remains  unbent 
Let  but  an  Ezra  rise  anew, 

To  lift  the  banner  of  the  Jew ! 


124 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


A  rag,  a  mock  at  first — erelong, 

When  men  have  bled  and  women  wept, 

To  guard  its  precious  folds  from  wrong, 

Even  they  who  shrunk,  even  they  who  slept, 

Shall  leap  to  bless  it,  and  to  save, 

Strike !  for  the  brave  revere  the  brave ! 

— Emma  Lazarus. 

AS  NOVELISTS. 

Next  to  poetry  the  highest  form  of  literary 
art  is  the  novel.  In  this  branch  there  occur 
many  great  Jewish  names: 

Berthold  Auerbach,  born  at  Nordstetten,  in 
the  Black  Forest,  in  1812,  and  died  in  1882. 
His  earliest  historical  novels  treat  of  Judaism. 
His  “Schwarzwalder  Dorfgeschichten”  (Black 
Forest  Village  Stories)  are  remarkable  for  their 
philosophical  reflection  and  poetical  feeling. 
These  thrilling  descriptions  of  German  village 
life  were  translated  into  English,  as  were  also 
his  “Barfiissele,”  (Little Barefoot);  “Joseph  im 
Schnee,”  (Joseph  in  the  Snow);  “Auf  der 
Hohe”  (On  the  Heights)  and  “Das  Landhaus  am 
Rhein”  (The  Villa  on  the  Rhine).  Many  of 
his  stories  were  translated  into  French,  Dutch, 
and  Swedish.  Benjamin  Disraeli  (1804-81),  at 
twenty-two,  published  his  famous  “Vivian 
Grey.”  The  originality,  virility  and  wit  made  it 
not  only  the  most  celebrated  book  of  the  day  in 
England,  but  it  was  translated  into  the  princi- 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  ARTS. 


no 


pal  languages  of  Europe.  At  twenty-five  he 
published  “Contarini  Fleming,  a  Psychologi¬ 
cal  Autobiography,”  which  Heine  pronounced 
to  be  “one  of  the  most  original  works  ever 
written,”  and  which  received  high  praise  from 
Goethe.  While  Disraeli  was  waiting  to  enter 
Parliament,  he  wrote  “The  Wondrous  Tale  of 
Alroy,”  “The  Rise  of  Iskander,”  “Henrietta 
Temple,”  and  “Yenetia.”  Disraeli’s  most 
famous  work  in  1870  was  “Lothair,”  a  politico- 
religious  novel,  aimed  at  the  Fenians,  the 
Communists  and  the  Jesuits.  It  had  a  great 
success,  its  circulation  in  the  United  States 
alone  being  80,000  copies. 

His  father,  Isaac  Disraeli  (1766-1848),  of 
“Curiosities  of  Literature”  fame,  also  wrote  a 
novel  entitled  “Despotism,  or  the  Fall  of  the 
Jesuits.”  The  works  of  L.  Kompert  (b.  1822), 
S.  Kohn  (b.  1825),  A.  Bernstein  (1812-87),  the 
first  novelist  to  popularize  science;  K.  E. 
Franzos  (b.  1848),  S.  H.  Mosenthal  (1821-77), 
and  Max  Ring  (b.  1817),  have  been  translated 
into  most  of  the  European  languages.  Judaism 
may  claim  half  of  the  brilliant  talents  of  Paul 
Heyse  (b.  1830),  and  Jules  Verne  (b.  1828),  the 
famous  writer  of  scientific  romances,  has  at 
least  a  few  Jewish  corpuscles  in  his  veins. * 


*  Grant  Allen  has  made  this  observation:  “The  list  that  can 


126  JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 

The  versatile  Max  Nordau  writes  the  Ger¬ 
man  language  in  a  style  unequaled  by  German 
Gentiles. 

Israel  Zangwill,  born  in  one  of  the  poorest 
hovels  of  the  Whitechapel  Ghetto,  at  the  early 
age  of  thirty-five  stands  acknowledged  one  of 
the  foremost  of  English  novelists  and  critics  of 
our  day.  The  following  selections  are  a  few 
striking  single  passages  from  his  different 
works: 

“What  is,  is  right.  If  aught  seems  wrong 
below,  then  wrong  it  is — of  thee  to  leave  it  so.” — 
Without  Prejudice. 

“Art  is  truth  seen  as  beauty.” — The  Master . 

“The  Jewish  mission  will  never  be  over  till 
the  Christians  are  converted  to  the  religion  of 
Christ.” — Dreams  of  the  Ghetto. 

“Each  poor  man  is  a  rung  in  the  Jacob’s 
ladder,  by  which  the  rich  man  may,  if  he 
is  charitable,  mount  to  heaven.” — The  King  of 
Schnorrers. 

Jewish  women  have  attained  considerable 
skill  in  this  branch  of  literary  art.  Mme.  Fanny 
Lewald  (1811-89),  Heine’s  sister,  the  Prinzessa 
della  Rocca,  Grace  Aguilar  (1816-71),  the  Dan- 

be  compiled  of  distinguished  persons  of  half-Jewish  blood  is 
something  simply  extraordinary,  especially  when  one  remembers 
the  comparatively  small  sum  total  of  such  intermarriages.  ” 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  ARTS. 


127 


ish  novelist,  Olivia  Levison  (1847-94),  known  as 
“Sylvia  Bennet,”  and  Rachel  Ackerman,  are 
representative  Jewesses. 

JEWISH  DRAMATISTS 

may  follow  Jewish  novelists.  Originally  the 
Jewish  mind  had  no  attraction  for  the  theater. 
To  the  masses  of  the  Jewish  people  theatrical 
performances  seemed  a  desecration,  and  the  Old 
Testament  laws  inculcating  humanity  to  beasts 
and  men  naturally  arrayed  them  against  gladi¬ 
atorial  conquests,  and  their  simple  minds  re¬ 
volted  from  the  themes  of  the  Greek  play¬ 
wright,  where  violence  triumphant  and  conjugal 
infidelity  were  the  favorite  subjects  of  dramatic 
representation.  The  plays  of  those  days  were 
conspicuous  for  their  immorality.  The  theaters 
were  frequently  the  scenes  of  idolatrous  prac¬ 
tices,  so  that  we  find  that  one  of  the  early  rab¬ 
bis  exclaimed:  “Cursed  be  they  who  visit  the 
theater  and  the  circus  and  despise  our  laws/’ 
Many  buffooneries  were  launched  against  Juda¬ 
ism.  A  camel  covered  with  a  mourning  blanket 
was  brought  upon  the  stage,  and  gave  rise  to 
this  conversation:  “Why  is  the  camel  trapped 
in  mourning?’’  “Because  the  Jews,  who  are 
observing  the  Sabbatical  year,  abstain  from 
vegetables,  and  even  refuse  to  eat  herbs.  They 


128 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


eat  only  thistles,  and  the  camel  is  mourning  be¬ 
cause  he  is  deprived  of  his  favorite  food.” 
Another  time  a  buffoon  appears  on  the  stage 
with  head  closely  shaved.  “Why  is  the  clown 
mourning?”  “Because  oil  is  dear.”  “Why  is 
oil  dear?”  “On  account  of  the  Jews.  On  the 
Sabbath  day  they  consume  everything  they 
earn  during  the  week.  Not  a  stick  of  wood  is 
left  to  make  fire  whereby  to  cook  their  meals. 
They  are  forced  to  burn  their  beds  for  fuel,  and 
sleep  on  the  floor  at  night.  To  get  rid  of  the 
dirt,  they  use  an  immense  quantity  of  oil. 
Therefore,  oil  is  dear,  and  the  clown  cannot 
grease  his  hair  with  pomade.” 

But  though  the  Jewish  Church  was  the  de¬ 
clared  enemy  of  the  drama,  it  had  no  power  to 
keep  its  members  from  attending  it,  and  we 
find,  that  despite  the  rampant  antagonism  of 
the  teachers  of  the  law,  the  stage  gradually 
worked  its  way  into  the  affection  and  consider¬ 
ation  of  the  Jewish  public,  and  Josephus  speaks 
of  Alityros,  “a  player  and  a  Jew,  well  favored 
by  Nero.”  The  rabbis  and  the  Church  Fathers 
were  of  one  mind  in  their  rigorous  injunctions 
against  the  theater.  Bat  all  anathemas  against 
the  circus  and  the  stadium  were  in  vain.  One 
hundred  and  fifty  years  before  the  Christian  era 
we  read  of  the  first  Jewish  dramatist,  the  Greek 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  ARTS. 


129 


poet,  Ezekielos  (Ezekiel)  whose  play,  “The 
Exodus  from  Egypt,”  was  modelled  after  Euri¬ 
pides.  The  first  Jewish  contribution  to  the 
drama,  the  so-called  Purim  play,  based  on  “The 
Story  of  Haman,”  dates  from  the  ninth  century. 
The  Spanish  drama  now  adapted  Bible  subjects 
to  the  stage — in  fact  the  first  original  drama  in 
Spanish  literature,  the  celebrated  “Celestina,” 
is  attributed  to  a  Jew,  Marrano  Rodrigo  da  Costa. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century 
the  Portuguese  language  usurped  the  place  of  the 
Spanish  among  Jews,  and  we  immediately  hear 
of  a  Jewish  dramatist,  Antonio  Jose  da  Silva. 
“Asire  ha-Tikvah,”  (The  Prisoners  of  Hope), 
printed  in  1763,  was  the  first  drama  published 
in  Hebrew,  by  Joseph  Pensa  de  la  Vega. 
Twenty-one  poets  in  Latin,  Hebrew,  and  Span¬ 
ish  verse  sang  the  praises  of  this  seventeen-year- 
old  author.  A  century  later  Mose  Chayyim 
Luzzatto  of  Padua  appeared  in  “Samson  and 
the  Philistines,”  and  though  not  seventeen 
years  old  the  preserved  fragments  of  his  drama 
are  declared  by  critics  faultless  in  verse. 

The  first  Jewish  dramatist  to  use  German  was 
Benedict  David  Arnstein,  of  Vienna.  He  was 
succeeded  by  L.  M.  Buschenthal.  Since  his 
time  poets  of  the  Jewish  race  have  enriched 
every  department  of  dramatic  literature.  Mos- 


130  JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 

enthal’s  “Deborah”  and  “SonnenwendhofF” 
were  adapted  to  the  English,  Italian,  Danish, 
Hungarian  and  Bohemian  stage.  While  Kalisch, 
Jacobson,  Fulda  and  Schlessinger  contributed 
many  comedies  to  the  German  stage. 

Ludovic  Halevy,  the  composer’s  nephew,  in 
opera,  comedy  and  vaudeville,  proved  himself, 
next  to  D’Ennery,  the  most  prolific  of  French 
dramatists.  Adolphe  Philippe  D’Ennery,  died 
in  Paris  on  January  25,  1899.  He  was  born  in 
that  city  on  June  17,  1811.  In  1831  he  began 
writing  for  the  stage,  and  during  his  long  career 
wrote  over  two  hundred  plays,  many  of  which 
were  written  in  collaboration. 

M.  D’Ennery  was  best  known  to  American 
theater-goers  as  the  author  of  “The  Two 
Orphans”  and  “A  Celebrated  Case.”  The  list 
of  his  plays  include  farce-comedies,  vaudevilles, 
dramas,  melodramas,  and  spectacular  reviews. 
In  collaboration  with  M.  Dumanoir  he  wrote 
“Don  Caesar  de  Bazan.”  “Around  the  World 
in  Eighty  Days,”  and  “Michael  StrogofF”  were 
written  in  collaboration  with  Jules  Verne. 

His  other  collaborators  include  Messrs.  Bour¬ 
geois,  Lemoine,  Dumas,  Grange,  M.  Cormon, 
Mallian,  Dugne,  Desnoyer,  Foucher,  Ed¬ 
mond,  Thiboust,  Plouvier,  Dartois,  Albert, 
Hostien,  Brisebarre,  Decourcelle,  and  Gabet. 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  ARTS. 


131 


During  the  sixties  it  was  not  unusual  for 
D’Ennery  to  have  four  or  five  plays  being  pre¬ 
sented  in  Paris  at  the  same  time.  The  first 
play  which  he  wrote  alone  was  called  “Le 
Changement  d’Uniforme,”  and  was  produced  in 
1836.  In  1847  he  received  the  decoration  of  the 
Legion  of  Honor,  and  in  1859  he  was  promoted 
to  the  rank  of  an  officer  of  the  Legion. 

E.  Abraham  (b.  1833),  H.  J.  Cremieux  (b.  1828) 
and  A.  P.  A.  Millaud  (b.  1836),  made  great 
contributions  to  the  French  stage.  Joseph  von 
Weilen  and  Hugo  Burger  are  two  of  the  chief 
dramatists  in  Austria.  Henry  James  Byron, 
the  English  play  wright,  was  the  son  of  a  Jewish 
mother.  He  wrote  “Fra  Diavolo,”  “Babes  in 
the  Wood,”  “Jack,  the  Giant  Killer,”  “Dund¬ 
reary  Married  and  Done  For,”  and  many  other 
popular  farces  and  pantomimes.  He  made  his 
first  appearance  as  an  actor  in  the  Globe 
Theater,  London,  in  October,  1869,  in  his  own 
drama,  “Not  Such  a  Fool  as  he  Looks.” 

Among  the  earliest  and  most  prominent 
American  dramatists  was  Mordecai  M.  Noah. 
He  was  born  in  Philadelphia  in  1786,  and  at 
twenty -four  he  was  editor  of  the  City  Gazette 
in  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  and  here  his  first 
play  was  enacted,  “Paul  and  Alexis,  or  The 
Orphans  of  the  Rhine.”  It  was  written  for 


132 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


Mrs.  C.  L.  Young,  an  English  actress.  Its 
name  was  changed  to  “The  Wandering  Boys,” 
and  in  1820  brought  out  at  the  Park  Theater 
in  New  York  with  great  success,  and  remained 
for  years  one  of  the  popular  attractions  on  the 
stage.  The  play  was  afterward  taken  to  Lon¬ 
don.  “She  Would  Be  a  Soldier,  or  The 
Plains  of  Chippewa,”  was  a  clever  and  success¬ 
ful  play  brought  out  in  1819,  at  the  Park  Theater, 
which  was  enacted  by  Barnes  and  Spiller  in  the 
comic  characters,  and  Miss  Leesugg,  a  celebrated 
English  actress.  His  other  plays  were: 
“Marion,  or  The  Hero  of  Lake  George,” 
“The  Grecian  Captive,”  “The  Fortress  of  Sor¬ 
rento,”  “The  New  Constitution,”  “The  Canal,” 
“Yesop  Caramatti,  or  The  Siege  of  Tripoli.” 
His  first  attempt  to  obtain  pecuniary  compensa¬ 
tion  for  his  dramatic  productions,  was  “The 
Siege  of  Tripoli,”  at  the  Park  Theater,  May  25, 
1820.  It  brought  a  crowded  and  fashionable 
house,  and  netted  him  two  thousand  dollars. 
Immediately  after  the  performance  the  house 
took  fire  and  with  a  generosity  characteristic  of 
him  he  gave  all  the  money  to  the  poor  members 
of  the  company  who  in  consequence  of  the  fire 
were  thrown  out  of  employment.  When  the 
theater  was  rebuilt  Noah  contributed  to  the  new 
edifice,  and  to  honor  the  evacuation  of  New  York 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  ARTS. 


133 


by  the  British  in  1783  he  wrote  a  military  play 
which  he  called  “Marion,  or  The  Hero  of 
Lake  George.’ *  The  play  was  given  for  the 
benefit  of  his  relative,  Aaron  J.  Phillips,  the 
actor,  and  to  add  to  the  income  Noah  had  the 
play  printed  in  pamphlet  form.  Noah  was  then 
a  major  in  the  National  Guard,  and  the  literary 
and  social  lion  of  the  city.  His  friends  crammed 
the  theater  and  to  use  his  own  words,  “not  a 
word  of  the  play  was  heard,”  “and  when,” 
writes  an  eye-witness,  “the  actors  looked  upon 
the  audience  and  saw  a  thousand  persons,  each 
with  a  book  in  hand,  turning  over  the  leaves, 
with  the  accompanying  buzz  and  flutter,  they 
became  confused,  forgot  their  parts,  and  to  carry 
on  the  action  of  the  piece  had  to  improvise,  by 
saying  whatever  occurred  to  them,  which  had 
the  effect,  also,  to  confuse  the  audience  in  at¬ 
tempting  to  follow  the  dialogue,  until  a  climax 
was  reached  by  a  way  the  beneficiary  thought 
would  produce  a  great  effect.  This  was  the 
entry  of  Phillips,  as  the  Turkish  commander, 
mounted  upon  a  live  elephant,  that  had  been 
procured  from  a  menagerie.  His  figure  was 
naturally  grotesque,  and  as  the  huge  animal, 
with  Phillips  perched  on  the  top  of  it,  came 
marching  down  to  the  footlights,  to  the  alarm 
and  confusion  of  the  musicians  in  the  orchestra, 


134 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


Phillips,  unable  to  steady  himself  upon  the  un¬ 
wieldy  beast,  toppled  over.”  Noah  was  greatly 
ridiculed  for  his  production,  and  had  the  manli¬ 
ness  to  come  out  in  his  paper,  The  National 
Advocate ,  with  a  statement  that  the  failure  of 
his  drama  was  not  owing  to  the  actors,  but  to 
his  own  imprudence  in  furnishing  each  of  the 
audience  with  a  printed  copy  of  the  play. 

Another  Jewish  dramatist  was  Samuel  B.  H. 
Judah.  He  was  born  in  New  York  in  1799,  and 
was  of  an  old  colonial  Jewish  family  that  had 
settled  in  New  York  as  early  as  1725.  His 
father,  Benjamin  S.  Judah,  after  the  close  of 
the  American  Revolution,  became  one  of  the 
most  prominent  of  the  merchants  of  New  York, 
a  man  greatly  respected  for  his  integrity  and 
valued  for  his  dauntless  enterprise. 

Young  Judah  early  directed  his  attention  to¬ 
ward  the  theater,  and  in  1820  he  wrote  a  melo¬ 
drama  entitled  “The  Mountain  Torrent,”  which 
was  produced  that  year,  at  the  Park  Theater, 
with  fair  success.  In  1882  he  wrote  another 
melodrama,  “The  Rose  of  Aragon,”  that  was 
acted  at  the  same  theater,  and  was  much  more 
successful.  This  was  followed  by  another  play, 
“The  Tale  of  Lexington,”  and  in  1823  a  benefit 
was  given  to  him  at  the  Park  Theater,  at  which 
the  two  latter  plays  were  acted. 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  ARTS. 


135 


In  1838  Jonas  B.  Phillips  produced  a  melo¬ 
drama  called  “Cold  Stricken,”  and  though  it 
had  the  attraction  of  Mrs.  Barnes  and  Judah,  it 
was  not  very  successful,  but  was  appreciated 
by  the  managers,  who  gave  the  author  a  benefit. 

He  afterward  wrote  a  drama,  “The  Evil  Eye,” 
which  was  produced  at  the  Bowery  Theater  in 
New  York  with  great  effect. 

H.  B.  Sommer  attained  distinction  as  the 
author  of  “Our  Show,”  and  “Help  Wanted,” 
while  David  Belasco  and  Sydney  Rosenfeld  are 
among  the  most  versatile  successful  dramatists 
of  to-day. 

JEWISH  GENIUS  ON  THE  STAGE. 

The  greatest  name  among  French  actresses  is 
acknowledged  to  be  that  of  Rachel  (Elizabeth 
Rachel  Felix)  (1820-58),  the  daughter  of  a  Jew¬ 
ish  peddler,  and  her  only  rival  in  European  fame 
is  another  Jewess,  Sarah  Bernhardt  (b.  1844). 
Of  Adolph  Ritter  von  Sonnenthal,  the  dramatic 
idol  of  the  Austrian  capital,  and  one  of  the 
greatest  living  interpreters  of  the  drama,  the 
New  York  Herald  recently  said: 

“Most  successful  from  every  point  of  view 
has  been  this  eminent  actor’s  career.  Born  at 
Budapest  in  1834,  he  began  his  theatrical  work 
by  playing  minor  parts  in  several  of  the  pro- 


136 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


vincial  theaters  in  Germany,  and  at  the  age  of 
twenty-two  he  made  his  debut  in  Vienna.  From 
that  time  he  has  held  the  position  of  leading 
actor  in  the  Austrian  capital. 

“In  1881  was  celebrated  the  twenty -fifth  anni¬ 
versary-  of  his  connection  with  the  Hofburg 
Theater.  The  people  went  wild  with  enthu¬ 
siasm.  After  the  performance  they  took  the 
horses  from  the  carriage  and  drew  him  through 
the  streets.  Among  the  distinguished  persons 
who  witnessed  the  performance  were  the  Em¬ 
peror  of  Austria,  the  crown  prince  and  all  the 
members  of  the  court. 

“There  is  in  Austria  an  imperial  mandate 
forbidding  audiences  to  call  actors  before  the 
curtain,  but  on  this  night  it  was  revoked  by 
special  permission  and  Sonnenthal  was  called 
out  no  less  than  forty-two  times.  The  emperor 
further  manifested  his  pleasure  by  conferring 
on  him  the  title  of  Ritter  Von,  thus  changing 
his  name  from  plain  Adolf  Sonnenthal.  He  re¬ 
ceived  at  the  same  time  the  royal  gold  medal 
for  art  and  wisdom  from  the  King  of  Bavaria 
and  the  Royal  Order  of  the  Red  Eagle  from  the 
Emperor  of  Germany.  What  especially  grat¬ 
ified  him,  however,  was  the  fact  that  from  all 
the  German  theaters  in  the  world  came  tokens 
of  esteem  and  appreciation,  the  gift  from  the 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  ARTS.  13? 

Thalia  Theater  in  this  city  being  a  golden  laurel 
wreath. 

“Sonnenthal  is  equally  admirable  in  comedy 
and  tragedy,  among  the  plays  in  which  he  has 
frequently  been  seen  being  ‘Hamlet,’  ‘The  Mar¬ 
quis  von  Villmer,’  ‘The  Daughter  of  Faricius,’ 
‘Uriel  Acosta,’  ‘Wallenstein’s  Death,’  ‘Vater 
und  Sohn,’  and  ‘Ein  Attache.’  Very  rarely  has 
the  actor  been  seen  in  any  of  these  perform¬ 
ances  outside  of  Vienna,  for  the  position  which 
he  holds  there  is  for  life  and  Lis  presence  is  con¬ 
stantly  required.  He  can  at  any  time  retire  on 
a  pension,  but  he  has  as  yet  given  no  evidence 
that  he  intends  to  do  so. 

“A  characteristic  story  is  told  of  the  manner 
in  which  Sonnenthal  first  became  impressed 
with  the  idea  of  becoming  an  actor.  While  a 
lad  he  visited  one  day  the  Hofburg  Theater, 
Vienna,  being  attracted  by  a  strong  and  popular 
play  entitled  ‘Erbforster.’  It  made  such  a  deep 
impression  and  aroused  so  much  ambition  in 
him  that  on  the  following  day  he  went  to  Davi¬ 
son  and  begged  him  to  give  him  a  chance  to  be¬ 
come  an  actor.  He  was  asked  to  give  some  evi¬ 
dence  of  his  ability  in  that  direction,  and  he  at 
once  began  to  declaim  Karl  Moor’s  famous 
monologue,  beginning  ‘0,  Menschen,  Menschen !’ 
Sonnenthal  wrought  himself  up  so  much  while 


138 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


delivering  these  impressive  lines  that  at  the 
close  he  was  almost  exhausted.  Fortunately 
there  was  a  chair  near,  and  into  this  he  flung 
himself  with  such  force  that  it  went  to  pieces 
under  him.  This  was  more  than  his  critic  had 
counted  upon,  and  he  could  not  help  remarking: 

“  ‘Yes,  young  man,  you  certainly  have  some 
talent,  hut  that  is  no  reason  why  you  should 
break  my  furniture.’ 

“  Sonnenthal  made  profuse  apologies,  and  the 
interview  ended  pleasantly  and  profitably  for 
the  young  aspirant  to  dramatic  honors. 

“Sonnenthal  is  on  terms  of  intimacy  with 
most  of  the  leading  men  in  Austria,  and  Em¬ 
peror  Francis  Joseph  has  more  than  once  given 
evidence  of  his  high  appreciation  of  his  dra¬ 
matic  genius.  Indeed,  Sonnenthal,  more  than 
any  other  actor,  has  been  for  years  one  of  the 
attractions  of  Vienna. 

“Here  is  a  curious  story  that  well  illustrates 
Sonnenthal’s  steadfastness  of  character.  A  few 
years  ago  his  youngest  son,  Paul,  who  had 
served  in  the  cavalry  for  one  year  as  a  volunteer, 
became  so  strongly  attached  to  military  life 
that  he  made  up  his  mind  to  adopt  the  army  as 
a  profession.  He  was  well  qualified  for  a  mili¬ 
tary  career,  and  at  his  first  examination  for  a 
lieutenant’s  commission  he  received  such  high 

O 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  ARTS. 


139 


marks  that  the  examining  board  not  only  com¬ 
plimented  him,  but  also  urged  him  to  remain 
permanently  in  the  army. 

“The  young  man’s  military  aspirations,  how¬ 
ever,  were  soon  dashed  to  the  ground  by  his 
father,  who  insisted  that  his  son,  being  a  He¬ 
brew,  could  not  afford  to  renounce  his  religious 
scruples  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  a  position 
in  the  army,  however  high.  No  explanation,  no 
entreaty  was  potent  enough  to  make  the  elder 
Sonnenthal  alter  his  decision  in  this  regard. 
Finding  further  opposition  useless,  the  young 
man  abandoned  his  cherished  dream  and  entered 
the  office  of  a  Vienna  banker.  His  father’s 
action  in  the  matter  will  be  understood  by  those 
who  know  how  difficult  it  is  for  a  Hebrew  to 
obtain  any  social  recognition  in  the  Austrian 
army. 

“One  of  Sonnenthal’s  most  intimate  friends 
was  the  late  Archduke  Carl  Ludwig,  of  Austria, 
brother  of  the  present  emperor.  Shortly  before 
his  death  he  was  interviewed  about  the  great 
actor  and  he  said  among  other  things:  ‘How  re¬ 
markable  it  is  that  no  member  of  Sonnenthal’s 
family  has  inherited  his  genius  as  an  actor!  In 
fact,  I  can  recall  only  one  other  similar  case, 
that  of  the  Devrients  family.  And  by  the  way,’ 
continued  the  archduke,  ‘my  youngest  son, 


140 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW, 


Carl,  is  quite  an  amateur  actor.  Indeed,  he  has 
shown  no  little  talent  in  that  direction,  and 
what  is  not  generally  known,  he  has  studied 
under  Sonnenthal.  If  he  had  been  born  in  a 
peasant’s  cottage,  he  might  have  won  laurels  as 
an  actor,  but  fate  has  willed  otherwise.’  ” 

Other  distinguished  artists  on  the  European 
stage  have  been,  Madame  Judith  (b.  1829),  Zarie 
M.  Nathalie  (b.  1816),  John  Braham  (1774-1864), 
whose  dramatic  genius  was  equalled  by  his 
peerless  voice;  L.  Barnay  (b.  1842),  B.  Dawison 
(1818-72),  Morris  Barnett  (1800-56),  Maria 
Theresa  Bland  (1769-1810),  Helena  Levison 
(1852-88),  Ada  Isaacs  Menken  (1849-68),  Rebecca 
Isaacs  (1828-77),  and  Henry  Sloman  (1793-1873), 
while  among  European  singers  may  be  named 
that  original  genius,  Pauline  Lucca,  “the  trans- 
cendentally  human,”  and  Caroline  Gomperz- 
Bettelheim,  the  famous  Austrian  Court  Con¬ 
tralto. 

Aaron  J.  Phillips,  Emanuel  Judah,  and  Moses 
S.  Phillips,  in  the  early  history  of  the  American 
stage,  and  Rose  Eytinge,  J.  Newton  Gotthold, 
Daniel  E.  Bandmann,  Ray  Samuel,  Sally  Cohen, 
Maurice  Barrymore,  Minnie  Seligman  and  M. 
B.  Curtis  in  later  days  achieved  at  least  popu¬ 
larity  and  fame.  Junius  Brutus  Booth,  father 
of  Edwin  Booth,  was  a  Jew.  The  leading 
managers  are  Jews. 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  ARTS. 


HI 


ESSAYISTS. 

We  may  now  add  litterateurs  of  the  essayist 
type.  At  the  head  of  this  class  we  may  justly 
place  Ludwig  Borne  (1786-1837)  the  brave  war¬ 
rior  in  the  literary  war  of  liberation,  while  Ga¬ 
briel  Kiesser  (1806-63)  and  Karl  Blind  (b.  1826) 
deserve  companionship  with  Borne.  Grace 
Aguilar,  in  whose  soul  burned  the  sacred  fire  of 
the  prophets,  though  a  writer  of  a  different  class, 
may  be  mentioned  in  this  connection.  Her  life 
was  a  blessing  for  her  people  and  for  humanity. 
Her  book  of  poems  “The  Magic  Wreath,”  and 
her  well-known  volume  on  “Home  Influence,” 
still  finds  favor  among  Englishwomen.  In  1847, 
when  just  thirty -one  years  old,  her  beautiful 
soul  shook  off  the  mortal  coil. 

To  these  writers  we  may  add  literary  critics. 

The  chief  Jewish  name  in  this  branch  is  that 
of  George  Brandes  (b.  1842),  to  whom  we  may 
add  Isaac  Disraeli,  and  Michael  Bernays  (1834- 
97). 

From  belles-lettres  we  may  turn  to  the  press. 

Anti-Semites  assert,  and  with  truth,  that 
the  Jews  have  a  preponderating  influence  on  the 
German  and  French  press.  Many  of  the  chief 
reviews  and  influential  daily  newspapers  in 
England,  Italy,  Denmark,  and  the  United  States 
are  either  owned  or  edited  by  Jews. 


142 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


THE  JEWS  IN  MUSIC. 

Turning  from  the  arts  of  rhyme  and  reason 
let  us  briefly  enumerate  the  Jewish  celebrities 
in  the  art  of  rhythm  and  melody — the  art  most 
cultivated  by  Jews.  Among  their  musical  gen¬ 
iuses  are  first  of  all  Felix  Bartholdy  Mendels¬ 
sohn  (1809-47),  the  ivunderkind  of  modern  music, 
Jacques  Francois  Fromental  Halevy  (1799- 
1862),  Giacomo  Meyerbeer  (1794-1863),  Jacques 
Offenbach  (1819-1882),  K.  Goldmark  (b.1832),  and 
Johann  Strauss  (b.  1825),  the  great  waltz  king. 
The  musical  leaders  of  England  are  J.  Moscheles 
(1794-1870),  F.  H.  Cowen  (b.  1852),  Sir  Julius 
Benedict  (1805-85),  Sir  M.  Costa  (1810-78),  Sir  A. 
Sullivan  (b.  1844),  and  Charles  K.  Salaman 
(b.  1814).  Of  minor  composers  we  may  select,  of 
Frenchmen,  C.  H.  V.  Alkan  (b.  1813),  Jules  Cohen 
(b.  1835),  and  Emilie  Jonas  (b.  1827).  Among 
the  Swedes,  J.  A.  Josephson  achieved  fame. 
Among  America’s  great  leaders  we  may  name 
RudolphAronson,  Wilhelm  Gericke,  Carl  Wolf- 
sohn,  Jacob  Rosewald,  and  the  Damroschs,  the 
Blutkopfs  of  Germany,  Damrosch  being  the 
literal  translation  into  Hebrew  of  the  German 
name. 

The  Jews  have  perhaps  achieved  as  great 
triumphs  as  performers  as  they  have  as  com¬ 
posers.  The  piano  found  its  greatest  master  in 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  ARTS. 


148 


Anton  Rubinstein,  while  Moritz  Rosenthal  and 
Joseph  Hoffman  bid  fair  to  equal  him.  Joseph 
Joachim  played  the  violin  in  a  manner  never 
equalled  before  his  time,  nor  since.  Jules  Levy 
stands  first  among  cornetists,  and  Louis  Blum- 
enberg  is  the  leading  solo  violoncellist  in  this 
country. 

Wagner  wrote  Das  Judenthum  in  der  Music 
to  show  that  the  Aryan  had  originality,  while 
the  Jews  were  only  adusters  and  adapters.  We 
leave  the  critics  to  determine  this  point.  But  this 
we  know,  that  when  Wagner  produced  an  opera 
to  show  the  Teutonic  superiority  over  the  Jews, 
he  was  dumfounded  when  on  the  night  of  the 
performance  all  the  first  violins  were  in  the 
hands  of  Jews. 

AS  PAINTERS  AND  SCULPTORS. 

As  painters,  owing  to  the  strictures  of  their 
religion  they  have  just  begun  to  achieve  distinc¬ 
tion.  Solomon  J.  Solomon  stands  easily  first 
among  English  artists.  Joseph  Israels  is  famed 
for  his  celebrated  delineations  of  Dutch  fisher 
life.  Sir  J.  E.  Millais,  it  is  said,  has  Jewish 
blood  in  his  veins.  E.  Bedemon  deserves  men¬ 
tion  here,  and  so  does  A.  Solomon,  once  cele¬ 
brated  for  his  painting,  “Waiting  for  the  Ver¬ 
dict.”  S.  A.  Hart  must  be  named  as  the  first 


144 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


Jewish  Royal  academician.  A.  M.  Jacobs,  the 
brothers  Lehman,  E.  Levy,  H.  L.  Levy,  R.  Ul- 
mann,  and  J.  Worms,  all  Frenchmen;  the  Ger¬ 
mans,  F.  E.  Meyerheim  and  Heinrich  Schles- 
singer;  J.  Ashkenazi  and  Leon  Baksta,  among 
the  Russians,  are  recognized  as  first-class 
artists. 

Distinguished  artists  among  Americans  in¬ 
clude  Herman  N.  Hynemann,  Constant  Meyer, 
Henry  Mosler,  George  D.  Maduro  Peixotto,  H. 
Sailer  Levvy,  and  Jacob  H.  Lazarus.  Antokol¬ 
ski  is  the  greatest  Russian  sculptor,  and  among 
the  first  of  French  sculptors  are  Solomon  Adam 
and  Emilie  Soldi.  Moses  J.  Ezekiel,  born  in 
Richmond,  Virginia,  in  1844,  whose  works 
have  been  exhibited  in  all  the  art  centers  of 
Europe,  and  whose  work,  “Religious  Liberty,” 
is  now  at  Fairmount  Park,  Philadelphia, 
is  perhaps  the  most  celebrated  of  his  num¬ 
erous  productions.  Charles  Waldstein,  son  of  a 
New  York  optician,  is  the  greatest  living  author¬ 
ity  on  Greek  art  and  archaeology.  He  holds 
the  position  of  director  of  the  Fitzwilliam  Mu¬ 
seum  of  the  University  of  Cambridge,  England. 

Great  Jewish  architects  seem  few,  but  Al- 
drophe  among  the  French,  Stiasney  among  the 
Austrians,  Hirsch  and  Basevi  among  the  Eng¬ 
lish,  Charles  H.  Israels,  and  Leopold  Eidlitz, 
both  of  New  York,  and  Dankman  Adler,  of 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  ARTS. 


145 


Chicago,  are  splendid  representatives  of  the 
genius  of  their  race  in  this  art.  Alfred  R.  Wolf, 
of  New  York,  is  a  recognized  authority  in  his 
specialty  of  steam  engineering.  Mendez  Cohen, 
of  Baltimore,  ranks  as  one  of  the  most  scholarly 
and  skillful  civil  engineers  in  this  country.  Cle¬ 
mens  Herchel,  of  Holyoke,  is  a  recognized 
authority  on  hydraulic  engineering. 


The  Jew  in  the  Sciences. 


Poet,  lawyer,  painter,  actor,  statesman,  physician,  musician 
— there  is  not  a  branch  of  learning,  art,  or  science,  in  which  the 
Jew  is  not  in  the  front  rank.  The  thousand  years  of  oppression 
have  left  no  mark  upon  his  mighty  spirit.  He  steps  from  the 
lowest  depths,  where  all  the  world  flings  mud  upon  him.  straight 
to  the  front,  and  he  stands  there.  “Behold!5’  he  says,  '*  Thus  and 
thus  have  I  done.  Give  me,  too — me — a  place  among  the  immor 
tals!  Other  races  have  been  persecuted  and  despised  What 
have  they  done?  Nothing!  Parsee,  Czech,  Basque,  Wend, 
Celt,  Cagot — what  have  they  done?  Nothing!  Nothing!  It  is 
not  for  nothing  alone  in  our  degradation  that  we  were  the  Chosen 
People.  Wait — this  is  but  a  beginning — wait  some  fifty  years. 
Then  the  reign  of  the  Jews  will  begin.  First  in  Western  Europe; 
then  in  America.  .  .  ,  For  as  we  have  been  brought  so  low 

in  the  day  of  humiliation,  we  shall  be  exalted  so  high  in  the  hour 
of  triumph/’ — Walter  Besant,  “The  Rebel  Queen.” 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  SCIENCES. 


149 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  JEW  IN  THE  SCIENCES. 

Let  us  begin  by  enumerating  a  few  names  of 
Hebrews  who  have  reached  eminence  in  philoso¬ 
phy.  In  the  first  half  of  the  first  century  A.D., 
there  lived  in  Alexandria  the  philosopher  Philo. 
He  was  thoroughly  trained  in  grammar,  rhetoric 
and  music,  deeply  versed  in  Greek  literature, 
familiar  with  the  physical  and  mathematical 
sciences,  and  master  of  all  the  philosophical 
works.  While  one  of  the  ornaments  of  the 
Hellenic  literature  of  that  period,  he  was 
chiefly  moved  by  the  teachings  of  Moses,  and 
their  practical  effects  upon  the  Jews  in  contrast 
with  the  moral  dissoluteness  of  the  Greeks  he 
saw  about  him,  he  formed  in  his  own  soul  his 
sense  of  right  and  wrong.  The  highest  virtue 
according  to  him  contains  two  main  duties :  the 
worship  of  God,  and  love  and  justice  to  all  men. 

The  most  powerful  light  of  the  Middle  Ages 
was  the  great  Maimonides  (1135-1204),  “the 
Jewish  Aristotle.”  His  great  philosophical 
work,  “The  Guide  for  the  Perplexed,”  has  been 


150  JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 

translated  many  times  into  Latin,  German, 
Spanish,  English,  etc.  Joel  has  shown  that 
even  Spinoza  was  dependent  upon  Maimonides. 
Maimonides  endeavored  to  reconcile  divine  with 
human  wisdom,  as  manifested  by  Aristotle. 
Maimonides’  path  to  guide  the  perplexed  is 
marked  out  for  him  in  the  Old  Testament,  link¬ 
ing  philosophy  and  faith  in  perfect  harmony. 

The  work  of  Levi  Ben  Gerson,  the  defender  of 
Maimonides,  attracted  the  special  attention  of 
Beuchlin  and  Kepler.  Chasdai  Crescas,  the  op¬ 
ponent  of  Maimonides,  whose  “Light  of  God,’’ 
which  appeared  in  1410,  was  the  first  to  combat 
systematically  the  philosophy  of  Aristotle. 
Though  only  trained  in  the  ordinary  Rabbinic 
schools,  Solomon  Maimon  (1753-1800)  is  another 
remarkable  philosopher  that  Judaism  has  pro¬ 
duced.  Though  his  metaphysical  powers  were 
soon  eclipsed  by  Fichte,  Hegel  and  Schelling, 
it  is  conceded  that  his  criticism  struck  at  the  root 
of  the  Kantian  system.  Maimon  was  also  one  of 
the  earliest  forerunners  of  Symbolic  Logic. 
Spinoza,  referring  for  support  of  his  opinions  to 
the  Bible,  in  which  he  distinguished  between  the 
facts  narrated  and  the  coloring  received  from 
the  minds  of  the  writers,  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  rationalistic  school  of  interpretation  in  Ger¬ 
many.  Moses  Mendelssohn  was  the  pioneer  of 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  SCIENCES.  151 

modern  German  classical  literature.  Thus  with 
regard  to  philosophy  it  has  been  well  said: 
“Without  Judaism  no  scholastics  and  no  ad¬ 
vance,  and  therefore  no  development  in  philoso¬ 
phy.  ”  But  we  must  not  pass  by  Moses  Men¬ 
delssohn,  this  illustrious  philosopher  of  Ger¬ 
many,  with  a  mere  sentence.  To  his  hospitable 
home  flocked  Nicolai,  Lessing,  Goethe,  Herder, 
Wieland,  Hennings,  Abt,  Camp,  Moritz,  etc.  In 
fact  no  great  man  ever  came  to  Berlin  without 
seeking  Moses  Mendelssohn,  and  yet  this  emi¬ 
nent  genius,  who,  according  to  the  inscription 
on  a  bust  in  Professor  Herz’s  studio  at  Berlin, 

“  MOSES  MENDELSSOHN, 

The  greatest  sage  since  Socrates, 

His  own  Nation’s  glory, 

Any  Nation’s  ornament, 

The  confidant 
Of  Lessing  and  of  Truth. 

He  died 
As  he  lived 
Serene  and  wise,” 

was  merely  tolerated  as  the  “shopman”  of  a 
Berlin  merchant,  Bernhard,  his  co-religionist. 

By  edict  of  Frederick  the  Great,  dated  1752, 
that  despotic  monarch  limited  the  number  of 
Jews  he  would  permit  to  reside  in  Berlin,  and 
ordered  that  the  exclusive  privilege  should  be 
purchased.  A  Prussian  Jew  was  obliged  to  pay 
for  permission  to  marry ;  he  had  also  to  pay  a 


152 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


tax  upon  every  child,  and  if  the  number  of  Jews 
in  the  Prussian  capital  exceeded  the  limit  fixed 
by  the  king’s  edict,  the  surplus  was  forced  to 
quit  the  country.  The  whole  Jewish  community 
was  held  responsible  for  theft  committed  by  a 
Jew.  Prussian-born  Jews  were  not  allowed  to 
enter  the  army,  nor  to  become  agriculturists, 
nor  manufacturers,  nor  to  pursue  liberal  pro¬ 
fessions.  They  were  only  privileged  to  study 
medicine  and  mathematics.  A  Jew  who  was 
not  born  in  Berlin  could  not  obtain  permission 
to  reside  there,  unless  he  was  in  the  service  of 
one  of  his  privileged  co-religionists.  Mendels¬ 
sohn,  a  native  of  Dessau,  was  indebted  to  a 
Frenchman  for  the  privilege  of  residing  freely 
at  Berlin.  The  Marquis  d’Argens  addressed 
a  petition  to  Frederick  in  favor  of  Men¬ 
delssohn,  to  whom  the  king  was  partial.  The 
memorial  was  in  the  following  terms:  “A  bad 
Catholic  philospher  entreats  a  bad  Protest¬ 
ant  philosopher  to  grant  the  privilege  to  a  bad 
Jewish  philosopher.”  The  king,  perhaps 
amused  at  the  oddness  of  the  appeal,  granted 
to  Mendelssohn  the  permission  asked  for,  but 
which,  it  was  understood,  was  not  to  be  ex¬ 
tended  to  his  descendants,  and  for  this  grant  a 
thousand  thalers  were  demanded.  This  tax 
was,  however,  remitted.  This  almost  incredible 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  SCIENCES.  153 

narrow-minded  illiberality  and  antagonism  to 
Jewish  interests,  of  which  the  modern  anti- 
Semites  are  still  giving  the  world  too  frequent 
and  too  infamous  exhibitions,  accounts  for  the 
descendants  of  Moses  Mendelssohn  having 
abandoned  Judaism  and  professed  Christianity. 
Not  only  members  of  that  gifted  family,  but 
such  eminent  artists  as  Heine,  Moscheles, 
Joachim,  Rubinstein,  Disraeli,  Herschel  and 
other  distinguished  German,  English,  Polish, 
Hungarian,  and  Russian  Jewish  musicians, 
poets,  painters,  literati,  scientists  and  states¬ 
men,  finding  that  faithfulness  to  their  an¬ 
cient  creed  would  interfere  with  the  free  exer¬ 
cise  of  their  professional  career,  renounced  its 
practice,  and  professed  the  dominant  religion  of 
their  native  country.  This  at  once  removed 
every  obstruction  and  restriction,  and  the  reli¬ 
gious  prejudice  from  which  they  would  other¬ 
wise  have  suffered. 

Other  Jewish  names  of  distinguished  philoso¬ 
phers  are  those  of  H.  Steinthal  (1823-99),  M. 
Lazarus  (b.  1824),  A.  Franck  (1809-92),  and 
Hermann  Cohen  (b.  1840),  authority  on  Kant. 

JEWISH  HISTORIANS. 

The  greatest  historian  of  the  Christian  church 
is  Neander  (1789-1850),  whose  original  name 


154 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


was  David  Mendel,  and  whose  father  was  a  Jew¬ 
ish  peddler.  Alfred  Edersheim  (d.  1889), 
whose  “Life  of  Christ”  is  the  greatest  ever 
written — defending  the  orthodox  dogma  of 
Jesus  against  the  attacks  of  Strauss — was 
a  Jew.  Of  Jewish  historians  H.  Graetz 
(1817-91)  is  undoubtedly  the  greatest.  J.  M. 
Jost  (1793-1866)  comes  next  to  him,  and  then 
Joseph  Salvador  (1796-1873),  who  was  influen¬ 
tial  in  France.  J.  Da  Costa  (1798-1860)  is  the 
Dutch  historian  of  his  nation.  Sir  Francis 
Cohen  Palgrave  (1788-1861)  stands  among  the 
first  of  England’s  historians.  G.  F.  Herzberg, 
the  German  Greek  historian,  is  said  to  be  a  Jew, 
so  was  S.  Romanin  (1808-61),  the  historian  of 
Venice  and  Hungary,  and  Harry  Bresslau 
(b.  1848)  is  the  German  historian.  Professor 
Ludwig  Geiger  (b.  1848)  is  the  leading  authority 
on  the  Renaissance. 

ANTIQUARIANS 

may  follow  historians.  One  of  the  chief  author¬ 
ities  on  ancient  epigraphy  is  M.  A.  Levy  (1817- 
72).  The  most  voluminous  work  ever  written 
on  the  drama  was  written  by  J.  L.  Klein  (1810- 
76).  The  most  distinguished  archaeologist  in 
England  is  Professor  Solomon  Schechter,  for¬ 
merly  of  Cambridge,  now  of  the  University  of 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  SCIENCES.  155 

London.  A  striking  illustration  of  the  adapta¬ 
bility  of  the  Jewish  race  is  Solomon  Reinach, 
born  in  1858,  member  of  the  French  Institute, 
director  of  the  Archaeological  Museum,  in  St. 
Germain -en-Laye,  near  Paris — this  forty -one- 
year-old  son  of  a  German  Jew  has  his  office  in 
the  famous  Chateau  of  King  Francis  I.  of 
France.  His  brother  Theodor,  born  in  1860,  is 
also  a  famous  archaeologist  and  historian,  while 
the  youngest  brother  of  this  remarkable  family, 
Joseph,  born  in  1856,  has  been  secretary  of 
Gambetta,  editor  of  the  great  journal  La 
Republiqae  Frangaise ,  deputy  for  more  than  a  de¬ 
cade.  He  lost  his  seat  as  deputy  and  sacri¬ 
ficed  rank  as  officer  in  the  French  army  because 
of  his  defense  of  Captain  Dreyfus.  Among 
Americans,  Dr.  Cyrus  Adler  of  Columbian 
University  and  Smithsonian  Institution,  at 
Washington,  is  regarded  as  an  authority  on  Ori¬ 
ental  history  and  archaeology. 

In  the  science  of  economics  we  find  many  in¬ 
fluential  Jewish  names.  David  Ricardo  (1772- 
1823)  is  second  only  to  Adam  Smith  (1723-90). 
Karl  Marx  (1818-83)  and  Ferdinand  Lassalle 
(1825-63),  the  head  and  social  centers  of  modern 
Socialism.  Other  Jewish  economists  are  E. 
Morpurgo  (1836-85)  and  L.  Luzzatto  (b.  1843). 
Columbia  College  has  two  Jewish  professors, 


156 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


the  University  of  New  York,  the  College  of  the 
City  of  New  York,  Yale,  Harvard,  Johns  Hop¬ 
kins,  Columbia,  and  the  universities  of  Wis¬ 
consin  and  Pennsylvania  are  among  other  well 
known  colleges  which  have  professors  of  the 
Hebrew  race.  And  the  professorships  filled  by 
Jews  show  that  they  have  a  peculiar  aptitude 
for  the  highest  political  science.  In  the  science 
of  statistics  M.  Block  (b.  1816)  and  J.  Korosi 
(b.  1844)  have  achieved  distinction. 

MATHEMATICS. 

This  is  another  specialty  of  the  Jews.  The 
greatest  mathematician  of  the  nineteenth  cen¬ 
tury  was  Professor  J.  C.  Sylvester  (1814-94), 
co-founder  with  his  friend,  Professor  Cayler,  of 
the  modern  higher  algebra.  C.  G.  J.  Jacobi 
(1804-51),  the  German  mathematician,  after 
whom  certain  intricate  functions  are  termed 
“Jacobians,”  L.  Cremona  (b.  1830),  H.  Fili- 
powski  (1817-72),  the  compiler  of  some  anti- 
logarithmetic  tables;  0.  Terquem  (1782-1862), 
Maurice  Levy  (b.  1838),  B.  Gompertz  (1788- 
1865),  L.  Bendavid  (1762-1832),  J.  Blum  (b.  1812), 
L.  Kronecker  (b.  1823),  and  G.  Cantor,  the 
historian  of  mathematics ,  are  the  names  of 
a  few  Jews  who  distinguished  themselves  as 
mathematicians.  A  fact  worthy  of  mention  in 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  SCIENCES.  157 

this  connection  is  that  many  of  the  most  cele¬ 
brated  chess  players  of  both  hemispheres  have 
been  Jews. 

ASTKONOMY. 

When  we  come  to  look  into  their  merits  as 
astronomers,  we  find  that  at  an  early  date  the 
Jews  had  their  own  chronology  and  their  own 
calendar — they  were  therefore  bound  to  study 
astronomy.  Gamaliel  is  stated  to  have  used  the 
telescope  (of  course  without  glasses)  in  the  year 
A.D.  89.  Mar  Samuel  wrote  on  the  causes  and 
changes  of  the  seasons,  the  manuscript  of  which 
still  exists  in  the  Vatican. 

About  the  year  800  Rabbi  Sahal  al  Tabari 
was  the  first  to  translate  Ptolemaeus  into 
Arabic  and  discovered  the  refraction  of  light. 

Maimonides’  refutation  of  astrological  super¬ 
stitions  failed  to  make  Christian  priests  and 
princes  see  the  errors  of  their  way.  In  the 
twelfth  century  John  of  Savilla,  or  De  Luna, 
wrote  the  first  arithmetic  deciphering  decimal 
fractions. 

In  the  thirteenth  century  the  book  Sohar 
taught  the  revolution  of  the  earth  about  its  axis 
as  the  cause  of  night  and  day  long  before 
Copernicus.  To  Judas  Ben  Hakohenis  ascribed 
at  about  this  time  the  division  of  all  the  stars 
into  the  forty -eight  star  pictures. 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


3  5S 

Under  Alphonso  XI.  Rabbi  David  Audrahan, 
Isaac  Ben  Samuel,  Ben  Israel  and  Jacob  Ben 
Tibbon  are  praised  for  working  out  astronomical 
tables,  while  Magister  Leo  de  Bagnola’s  de¬ 
scription  of  an  astronomical  instrument  which 
he  discovered  was  translated  into  Latin  at  the 
special  request  of  Pope  Clement  VI.,  and  Kepler 
left  no  stone  unturned  to  obtain  it.  In  all  mat¬ 
ters  intellectual  as  well  as  in  all  the  sciences 
the  Jews  in  the  Middle  Ages  were  infinitely 
superior  to  their  Christian  contemporaries. 

Among  the  greatest  astronomers  of  Jewish 
parentage  in  recent  years  may  be  named  Sir 
William  Hersehel  (1738-1822),  his  sister  Caro¬ 
line  L.  Hersehel  (1750-1848),  and  Sir  John  Fred¬ 
erick  William  Hersehel  (1792-1871),  the  son  of 
Sir  William;  Hermann  Goldschmidt  (1802-66), 
discoverer  of  fourteen  asteroids,  between  1852 
and  1861,  and  who  pointed  out  more  than  ten 
thousand  stars  that  were  wanting  in  the  maps 
of  the  academy  at  Berlin;  W.  Beer  (1797-1850), 
the  composer  Meyerbeer’s  brother  and  the  first 
cartographist  of  the  moon,  and  M.  Loewy 
(b.  1833),  of  the  Paris  observatory. 

EXPLORERS, 

Benjamin  of  Tudela,  who  traveled  from  1165  to 
1173, explored  nearly  the  whole  world  of  that  day. 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  SCIENCES.  159 

His  book,  Maseot  Benjamin  (Iter  Benjaminum), 
has  been  translated  into  nearly  every  European 
language.  The  Jews  took  part  in  the  discovery 
of  the  East  Indies  through  Abraham  de  Bahia 
and  Joseph  Zapatero  de  Lamego,  who  were  sent 
by  Juan  II.  to  explore  the  coast  of  the  Red  Sea 
and  the  Island  of  Ormuzd.  Dr.  Kayserling’s 
researches  show  that  Jews  were  concerned  in 
the  discovery  of  America.  Emin  Pasha 
(Schnitzler),  (1840-93),  Gustav  Oppert,  the  Ger¬ 
man  explorer,  and  Ed.  Glaser,  the  Arabian  ex¬ 
plorer,  are  a  few  names  of  Hebrews  who  re¬ 
cently  won  distinction  as  discoverers. 

PHILOLOGY. 

The  Jews  appear  to  have  an  innate  talent  for 
language.  Their  dispersion  among  all  the 
nations  no  doubt  contributed  to  this.  They  are 
the  founders  of  our  scientific  philology.  The 
philosophic  side  of  philology  is  dominated  by 
the  school  of  M.  Lazarus  (b.  1824),  and  H.  Stein- 
thal  (1823-99).  In  comparative  etymology,  Th. 
Benfey  (1809-82),  is  one  of  the  acknowledged 
masters,  holding  the  same  position  in  Germany 
that  Max  Muller  does  in  England.  Michel  Breal 
(b.  1832)  is  one  of  the  leading  authorities  on 
comparative  mythology  and  philology  in  France. 
In  classic  philology,  M.  Bernhardy  (1800-75), 


160  JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 

the  famous  historian  of  Greek  and  Roman  litera¬ 
ture;  Ludwig  Friedlander  (b.  1814),  Jacob  Ber- 
nays  (1834-82),  W.  Freund  (b.  1806),  and  Henry 
Weil  (b.  1818),  must  be  ranked  among  the  first 
authorities. 

Modern  languages  have  always  found  their 
masters  among  the  Jews — A.  L.  David  (b.  1811), 
among  the  Turks;  M.  Bloch  (b.  1815),  and 
Annin  Yambery,  professor  of  Oriental  lan¬ 
guages  at  the  University  of  Budapest,  among 
the  Hungarians;  James  Darmesteter  (1849-93), 
and  his  brother  Arsene  (1846-89),  among  the 
French;  Daniel  Sanders  (1819-97),  among  the 
Germans  and  modern  Greeks;  and  M.  Lansdau 
(1837-90)  among  the  Italians.  H.  G.  Ollen- 
dorf  (1805-65)  invented  the  method  by  which 
modern  languages  are  taught.  Jules  Oppert 
(b.  1825)  is  the  greatest  Assyriologist  after 
Rawlinson.  Jewish  names  connected  with  phi¬ 
lology  crowd  upon  us  too  numerous  to  mention. 
Among  other  great  Jewsh  names  from  David 
Kimchi,  or  Kimhi  (d.  1240),  the  French  Hebrew 
scholar  (whose  exegetical  and  linguistic  writ¬ 
ings  are  to  this  day  considered  standard  works 
by  Hebrew  students),  are  Joseph  R.  Dercn- 
bourg  (1811-95)  and  his  son  Hartwig  (b.  1843), 
J^eopold  Zunz  (1794-1887),  A.  Geiger  (1810- 
67),  and  M.  Kayserling  (b.  1829). 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  SCIENCES.  161 

The  Jewish  Rabbis  furnished  to  Martin  Luther 
the  knowledge  of  the  whole  Bible  in  the  original 
text,  so  that  it  has  been  well  said:  “Without 
Hebrew  no  Reformation,  and  without  the  Jews 
no  Hebrew,  for  they  were  the  only  teachers  of 
this  language.”  But  for  the  Jews  we  might 
still  be  sitting  in  the  sable  night  of  the  sixteenth 
century. 

Abdallah  Ibn  Salam  and  Mukchairik  helped 
Mohammed  to  edit  the  Koran. 

No  people  in  the  world  take  more  pride  in 
what  they  consider  up-to-dateness  than  the 
Higher  Critics,  who  consider  Biblical  criticism 
a  pecular  concoction  of  their  wonderful  nine¬ 
teenth  century  intellects.  They  are  only  six¬ 
teen  hundred  years  behind  the  Jew,  for  in  the 
middle  of  the  third  century  Simon  Ben  Lachish 
declared  that  Job  never  lived,  that  he  was  the 
product  of  a  noble  poem  and  that  the  names  of 
angels  were  borrowed  by  the  Jews  from  a  for¬ 
eign  people  while  they  were  in  exile.  In  the 
ninth  century  Saadia  tried  to  explain  away  the 
miracles  in  true  nineteenth  century  fashion. 
In  the  eleventh  century  Chofni  declared  the 
-  witch  of  Endor  and  Balaam’s  speaking  ass  as 
mere  hallucinations.  About  this  time  Ben 
Iasus  (Jizchaki)  proved  that  portions  of  the 
book  of  Moses  could  not  be  ascribed  to  Moses. 


162 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


About  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century  Abra¬ 
ham  Ibn  Esra  published  a  critical  commentary 
on  Isaiah  which  is  up  to  date  with  our  highest 
critics. 

BIOLOGY. 

Among  the  greatest  names  in  German  botany 
are  F.  Cohn  (1828-98)  and  8.  Pringsheim  (1824- 
94).  In  the  department  of  physiology,  one  of 
the  greatest  names  in  the  past  is  that  of  G.  G. 
Valentin  (1808-83),  who  wrote  a  famous  text 
book  and  whose  “Valentin’s  Knife”  is  still  used 
by  specialists.  J.  Bernstein  (b.  1839),  J.  Rosen¬ 
thal  (b.  1826),  and  J.  Cohnheim  (b.  1839),  have 
two  books  in  the  “International  Scientific 
Series,”  most  of  them  on  the  physiolog  y  of 
nerves.  H.  Cohn  (b.  1838),  the  oculist,  and  G. 
Schwalbe  (b.  1846)  are  other  Jewish  names 
connected  with  physiology.  P.  J.  Reiss  (1831  - 
83)  was  distinguished  as  a  physicist,  and  the 
first  Jew  to  enter  the  Berlin  Academy.  Other 
names  will  meet  us  among  the 

JEWS  IN  MEDICINE, 

of  all  callings  the  one  in  which  they  have  been 
least  interrupted.  As  physicians  the  Jews  have 
always  held  peculiarly  high  positions.  During 
the  Middle  Ages  they  were  sought  for  all  over 
the  world,  so  that  even  Popes  who  issued  bulls 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  SCIENCES.  163 

against  them  and  interdicted  the  practice  of 
medicine,  would  only  intrust  their  bodies  to  the 
care  of  Jewish  physicians,  while  there  was 
hardly  a  king  or  queen  in  all  Europe  during  the 
Middle  Ages  but  employed  Jewish  physicians. 

In  the  thirteenth  century  we  find  Bachiel  Ibn 
Alconstantine,  the  favorite  and  physician  of 
King  Jayme.  When  the  brother  of  King  Louis 
IX. ,  of  France,  the  Count  of  Pitou  and  Toulouse, 
was  stricken  with  disease  of  the  eyes,  they  had 
to  beg  for  help  from  Abraham  of  Aragon,  the 
most  celebrated  oculist  of  his  period.  Isaac 
Zarfati  was  physician  to  Pope  Clement  VII., 
Giacomo  Mantini  to  Paul  III.,  and  Grosefonte 
Zarfati  to  Julius  II.  Alphonso  X.,  surnamed 
The  VTise,  had  for  court  physician  Don  Judah 
Ben  Moses  Cohen.  Joseph  Orabuena  was  phy¬ 
sician  to  Charles  III.  of  Navarra,  Meir  Alguades, 
to  Don  Henry  III.  of  Castile.  Francis  I.  of 
France  refused  to  employ  Christian  physicians, 
and  when  on  sending  to  Spain  for  a  Jewish  phy¬ 
sician  he  could  not  obtain  any  from  there,  he 
sent  to  Constantinople.  Many  of  the  kings  of 
Portugal  had  Jewish  physicians — Gedalya  was 
physician  of  Henry  of  Castile,  Moses  Navarra 
of  Joao,  Gedalyah  ben  Solomon  of  Duarte.  In 
Germany  the  Emperor  Frederick  III.  had  as  his 
physician  Jacob  Ben  Jechiel  Loans,  upon  whom 


164 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


he  conferred  knighthood.  Benjamin  Musafia 
was  physician  to  King  Christian  IV.  of  Den¬ 
mark.  Elias  Montalto  was  physician  to  Maria 
de  Medici.  Farragut  was  court  physician  to 
Charlemagne.  Maimonides  was  the  physician 
of  Saladin  and  refused  the  invitation  to  be  court 
physician  to  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion.  Rodrigo 
Lopez  was  court  physician  to  Queen  Elizabeth. 
Joseph  Ben  Jachya  was  physician  of  Sultan  el 
Malik  el  Dhahir,  and  Haham  Jacob  of  Sultan  Mo¬ 
hammed  III.  Indeed  “until  the  medical  schools 
at  Montpellier  and  Salerno,  which  were  chiefly 
founded  by  Jews,  were  organized,  the  Jews 
were  almost  the  only  pl^sicians  in  the  whole 
of  the  then  known  world.  Later  the  Arabs 
joined  them  in  this  work,  and  when  these  were 
expelled  from  Spain  the  Jews  were  again  the 
only  representatives  of  medical  science  in 
Europe.  The  brutal  and  ignorant  Christians  of 
that  time  even  arrived  at  the  absurd  supersti¬ 
tion  that  only  the  Jews  were  possessed  of  the 
talent  for  medicine.  Secular  and  spiritual 
princes  who  plundered  and  persecuted  the  Jews 
in  the  [most  shameful  manner  still  refused  to 
accept  a  Christian,  nay,  even  a  converted  Jew, 
as  their  court  physician.”  There  was  a  time 
in  which  the  Jews  as  court  physicians  held  the 
lives  of  all  the  princes  and  prelates  in  their 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  SCIENCES.  165 

hands.  Even  in  the  sixteenth  century,  by  far 
the  greater  number  of  the  most  celebrated  phy¬ 
sicians  were  Jews.  Among  modern  names  in 
medicine  that  of  Traube  (1818-76)  stands  second 
to  none.  Cesare  Lombroso  (b.  1836)  is  the  great¬ 
est  European  expert  on  insanitj7.  F.  E.  Lieb- 
reich  (1830-87),  the  ophthalmologist,  invented 
the  “Eye  mirror,”  A.  Hirsch  (1817-94)  is  the 
standing  authority  on  history,  geography  and 
pathology.  H.  Zeissl  (1817-84)  is  the  chief 
authority  on  syphilis.  K.  F.  Canstatt’s  (1807- 
50),  “Yierteljahreschrift,”  was  the  repository 
of  the  first  German  medical  work  of  the  time. 
E.  Altschul  (b.  1812),  was  a  leading  homeo¬ 
pathist.  M.  E.  0.  Liebreich  (b.  1839),  brother 
of  the  ophthalmologist,  discovered  croton- 
chloral-hydrate  and  was  the  first  to  use  chloral- 
hydrate  as  an  senesthetic  and  hypnotic.  These 
are  only  a  few  of  the  great  Jewish  European 
names  in  medicine.  The  universities  of  Ger¬ 
many  were  closed  to  the  Jews  until  1847,  and 
yet  to-day  in  the  University  of  Vienna,  in  the 
medical  department  alone,  twelve  of  the  pro¬ 
fessorships  are  held  by  Jews.  Out  of  the  eight¬ 
een  hundred  professorships  in  the  German  uni¬ 
versities  the  Jews  already  hold  eighty.  In 
America,  in  every  specialty  Jewish  physicians 
are  so  numerous  and  so  eminently  successful 


166 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


that  to  publish  any  names  at  all  would  be  an 
invidious  distinction. 

Since  writing  the  foregoing  we  chanced  upon 
an  article  in  an  old  number  of  “The  American 
Hebrew,”  by  Rev.  H.  Pereira  Mendes,  M.D., 
minister  of  the  congregation  of  Spanish  and 
Portuguese  Jews,  New  York,  which  may  be  of 
interest  to  those  who  wish  to  know  more  of  the 
history  of  the  Jew  in  medicine.  He  says: 

“With  the  decline  of  the  Rabbinical  power  in 
Palestine,  we  must  look  for  notable  examples  of 
the  Jew  in  medicine  in  Persia,  where  worked 
such  as  Maser  Djawah,  Isaac  ben  Emran,  ben 
Nun  the  Rabbi  of  Seleucia;  in  Egypt,  where 
flourished  Isaac  ben  Soleiman,  whose  works  on 
fevers,  remedies,  ailments,  pulse-beat,  were 
long  quoted;  in  Sicily  and  Italy,  where  lived 
the  famed  Sabbethai  Donolo. 

“In  the  Arabian  school  of  medicine,  the  Greek 
system  was,  of  course,  utilized— a  system 
already  illustrious  with  such  names  as  Hippo¬ 
crates  the  Great,  Herophilus,  Erasistratus,  As- 
clepiades,  Cicero’s  friend;  Soranus,  praised  by 
Tertullian  and  Galen.  Thus  at  Damascus  the 
science  was  pursued  with  Greeks  to  guide  and 
with  Jews  to  teach.  Honein  Ibn  Ishak  el  Ibadi 
ranked  high — Abulpharag  calls  him  a  Christian, 
but  Basnage  declares  him  a  Jew.  Mesu,  of 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  SCIENCES.  167 

Damascus,  is  a  name  that  will  always  live  in 
the  annals  of  healing.  This  issue  of  the  Orient 
is  worthy  of  being  mentioned  with  Abucasis  or 
Abulcasis,  or  Abu  T  Kasim,  of  Zahra,  near  Cor¬ 
dova,  in  the  distant  West.  The  De  Simplicitus 
(materia  medica)  of  the  former,  the  Altasrif 
(cyclopaedia  of  the  healing  art)  of  the  latter 
were  for  centuries  high  standards  of  authority. 

“Greater  than  these  still  was  Avicenna — was 
not  his  “Canon”  used  as  a  text-book  in  the  Lou¬ 
vain’s  house  of  learning  and  in  Montpellier’s 
classic  precincts  until  the  seventeenth  century 
was  far  advanced? 

“Thus  we  are  prepared  to  find  Jewish  influ¬ 
ence  at  work  with  Arab  environment  to  foster  it, 
in  fair  Spain,  in  France,  in  every  land  where 
for  our  nation  a  bright  sunshine  lit  up  the 
gloom  of  Hebrew  exile.  ‘Vix  credibile  est  qua 
mentis  contentione  et  virtutis  am  ore  hoc 
genus  hominum  in  bonas  disciplinas  praecipu 
sacrarum  literarum  explicationum,  philoso- 
phiam  ac  medicinam  et  omnes  liberaies  artes 
incubuerint. ’  ‘It  is  impossible  to  believe  with 
what  zeal  and  love  of  virtue  this  race  gave  itself 
to  the  sciences,  above  all,  to  the  study  of  the 
sacred  books,  philosophy,  medicine,  and  all  the 
liberal  arts.’  (‘Nicolaus  Antonius’  Bibl.  Hys- 
pan.,  pref.  cf  Bedarrides.) 


168 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


“To  cite  the  illustrious  names  of  the  Spanish 
Hebrews  whose  intellects  found  their  arena 
where  pain  was  to  be  combatted,  or  disease  to 
be  confronted,  would  be  a  long  task  indeed. 

“In  the  tenth  century  the  Hebrews  and  the 
Arabs  were  the  leaders  in  medicine.  (Cabanis, 
‘Revolution  de  la  Medicine;’  Astruc  ‘Histoire 
de  la  Faculte  de  Medicine  de  Montpellier’.)  To¬ 
gether  they  taught  at  Toledo,  Grenada,  Cordova, 
and  in  schools  in  France,  e.g.,  Lunel,  Beziers, 
Narbonne,  Montpellier,  the  Hebrew  found  scope 
for  his  genius.  In  ‘the  new  home  of  the  father 
of  medicine,’  as  the  last  place  was  called  (As¬ 
truc),  instruction  was  given  in  Hebrew.  ‘The 
reputation  of  the  Jewish  physician,’  says  Pru- 
nelle  (Discours  sur  l’influence  de  la  medicine), 
‘was  so  great,  that  at  one  time  it  was  asserted, 
that  to  be  a  good  physician  one  had  to  be  of  Jew¬ 
ish  extraction.’  Still  greater,  if  possible,  was 
the  influence  of  the  Jew  in  medicine  in  the  rival 
school  of  Salerno.  This  school,  according  to  an 
old  tradition,  was  founded  by  four  physicians, 
a  Saracen,  a  Jew,  a  Greek,  and  a  Neapolitan. 
There,  also,  Jewish  skill  again  waited  on  royalty. 
For  Charlemagne  had,  as  he  did,  the  Jew  Farra- 
gut  (Vita  Caroli  Magni  ab  autore  incerto;  Boissi 
dissertatione:  cf  Bedarrides);  to  the  ills  of 
Charles  the  Bald  ministered  the  Jew  Zaccharo, 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  SCIENCES.  169 

to  the  school  of  Salerno  went  William,  England’s 
puissant  conqueror,  to  court  health  with  Hebrew 
guidance.  Thus  passed  the  Dark  and  Middle 
Ages.  The  testimony  to  the  work  of  the  Jew 
in  medicine  in  these  ages  is  very  voluminous. 
Very  apropos  and  very  succinct  is  that  afforded 
by  Professor  White,  in  the  May,  1891,  ‘Popular 
Science  Monthly.’  He  says: 

“  ‘Even  to  those  who  have  become  so  far 
emancipated  from  allegiance  to  fetich  cures  as 
to  consult  physicians,  it  was  forbidden  to  con¬ 
sult  those  who,  as  a  rule,  were  the  best.  From 
a  very  early  period  in  European  history  the 
Jews  had  taken  the  lead  in  medicine;  their 
share  in  founding  the  great  schools  in  Salerno 
and  Montpellier  we  have  already  noted ;  and  in 
all  parts  of  Europe  we  find  them  acknowledged 
leaders  in  the  healing  art.  The  church  author¬ 
ities,  enforcing  the  spirit  of  the  time,  were  es¬ 
pecially  severe  against  these  benefactors;  that 
men  who  openly  rejected  the  means  of  salvation, 
and  whose  souls  were  undeniably  lost,  should 
heal  the  elect,  seemed  an  insult  to  Providence; 
preaching  friars  denounced  them  from  the  pul¬ 
pit,  and  the  rulers  in  State  and  Church,  while 
frequently  secretly  consulting  them,  openly 
proscribed  them.  Popes  Eugene  IV.,  Nicholas 
V.,  and  Calixtus  III.  especially  forbade  Chris- 


170 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW, 


tians  to  employ  them.  The  councils  of  Beziers 
and  Alby  in  the  thirteenth  century,  the  council 
of  Avignon  in  the  fourteenth,  the  Synod  of 
Bamberg  and  the  Bishop  of  Passau  in  the  fif¬ 
teenth,  with  many  others,  expressly  forbade 
the  faithful  to  call  Jewish  physicians  or  sur¬ 
geons  under  penalty  of  excommunication;  such 
great  preachers  as  John  Geylerand  John  Herolt 
thundered  from  the  pulpit  against  them  and  all 
who  consulted  them.  As  late  as  the  middle  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  when  the  city  council 
of  Hall,  in  Wurtemberg,  gave  some  privileges  to 
a  Jewish  physician ‘on  account  of  his  admirable 
experience  and  skill,’  the  clergy  of  the  city 
joined  in  a  protest,  declaring  that  ‘it  was  better 
to  die  with  Christ  than  to  be  cured  by  a  Jew 
doctor  aided  by  the  devil.’  Still,  in  their  ex¬ 
tremity,  bishops,  cardinals,  kings,  and  even 
popes,  insisted  on  calling  in  physicians  of  the 
hated  race.’ 

“But  side  by  side  with  Jewish  eminence  in 
medicine  grew  Jewish  eminence  in  commerce. 
With  this  advancement,  prosperity  and  renown 
grew  Christian  jealousy.  Thus  the  thunders 
of  Agobard  woke  ready  echoes  in  so-called 
Christian  hearts.  Laws  against  the  Jews  were 
promulgated.  Protests  were  succeeded  by  con¬ 
fiscations,  confiscation  by  exile.  This  is  the 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  SCIENCES.  171 

monstrous  story  of  those  Dark  and  Middle 
Ages.  Nevertheless,  ‘in  spite  of  prohibitions 
of  councils,’  observes  Prunelle,  ‘most  of  the 
sovereigns  of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  cen¬ 
turies  had  only  Jewish  physicians  attending 
them.’ 

“True  it  is,  that  some  voices  born  in  jealousy, 
nourished  in  narrow-mindedness,  and  fostered 
by  prejudice,  belittle  Jewish  influence  in  the 
healing  art  in  this  period  and  ascribe  to  the 
Arab  work  accomplished  by  the  Jew.  Rut  here 
let  me  quote  from  Marc  Borchard’s  ‘Brochure 
L’hygiene  Publique  ches  les  Juifs.’  For  his 
testimony,  to  the  contrary,  sufficiently  indi¬ 
cates  the  truth  in  this  connection: 

“  ‘After  having  established  the  preponderat¬ 
ing  part  played  by  the  Jewish  element  in  what 
has  been  wrongfully  termed  the  Arabian  civili¬ 
zation,  I  can  safely  say  that  it  is  the  same  in 
medicine.’  Such  authorities  as  Friend,  Mead, 
Huerte,  Borden,  Cabanis,  Heusinger,  had  appre¬ 
ciated  with  impartiality  the  merit  of  Hebrew 
physicians  prior  to  the  Renaissance.  But  in 
these  books  the  subject  was  only  treated  in 
passing  and  at  great  intervals;  the  more  general 
study  of  medicine  gives  it  a  larger  basis,  in 
placing  for  the  first  time  the  respective  posi¬ 
tions  of  the  two  nationalities  in  juxtaposition. 


1 72 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


“The  most  recent  and  most  faithful  historian 
of  Spain  professes  a  firm  conviction  in  this  re¬ 
gard.  ‘Out  of  the  preceding,  we  deduce,’  writes 
Professor  Morejon,  of  the  University  of  Madrid, 
‘first,  that  Arabic  medicine  is  but  the  daughter 
of  Jewish  medicine,  and  that  historians  have 
unjustly  confounded  the  Hebrews  with  the 
Arabs,  in  attributing  to  the  latter  the  glory 
which  rightly  belongs  to  the  former  (que  la 
medicina  Arabe  es  hija  de  la  Judia,  y  que  in- 
justamente  han  confundido  los  histori  adores  a 
los  Hebreos  conlos  Arabes  dando  a  estos  la 
gloria  que  verd  aderamente  perteance  a 
aquellos);  secondly,  that  the  Spanish  Jews, 
educated  in  their  own  schools  at  Zara,  Cordova 
and  Toledo,  gave  masters  to  Salerno,  to  Montpel¬ 
lier  and  other  places,  and  that  for  over  three 
centuries  they  deserved  to  be  the  physicians  to 
kings  and  popes,  in  preference  to  those  of  other 
nationalities  and  religions.  (Antonio  Hernan¬ 
dez  Morejon,  ‘His.  Bibliografica  de  la  Medicinia 
Espaniola’.)  We  may  listen  to  those  who  claim 
Avicenna  or  Abulcasis  as  Arabs.  But  who  can 
question  the  race  to  which  belonged  the  French¬ 
man  Solomon  ben  Isaac,  the  director  of  such 
operations  as  the  Caesarian  section,  or  the  many 
Spaniards  such  as  Ebn  Zohr,  who  taught  the 
truth  of  marsh  miasma  and  knew  what  was  its 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  SCIENCES.  173 

‘evil  spirit,’  Aben  Tibbon,  the  pharmacist, 
Benvanasta,  Joseph  ben  Abraham  ben  Shoshan, 
Abraham  ben  David  Caslari,  Baruch  Harofe, 
R.  Abraham  and  Rabbi  Solomon  aben  Zarsal, 
R.  Jacob  Castile,  Judah  Abarbanel;  such  giants 
as  Abraham  aben  Ezra,  Nachmanides  and  Maim- 
onides.  With  the  name  of  the  last  great  man  I 
stop.  Great  as  he  was  as  a  commentator,  phi¬ 
losopher,  mathematician,  astronomer,  jurist  and 
grammarian,  his  fame  as  physician  alone  would 
make  him  immortal.  Not  simply  is  he  thus  to 
be  honored  as  a  translator  of  Hippocrates  or 
Galen ;  as  a  practitioner  whose  advice  was  sought 
by  rich  and  poor  in  such  numbers  that  he  lacked 
time  to  tend  them;  or  as  court  physician;  but 
because  he  was  imbued  with  that  spirit  of  rever¬ 
ence  which  made  him  a  typical  Jew— grateful 
-  for  whatever  intelligence  he  possessed,  never 
boastful,  but  always  trusting  that  the  One  who 
alone  can  bless  human  skill  with  success  would 
bless  his  humble  efforts.  Who  can  read  his 
sublime  prayer  composed  for  physicians  going 
to  visit  their  patients  without  feeling  this?” 

MAIMONIDES’  PRAYER. 

“  ‘0  God,  thou  hast  formed  the  body  of  man 
with  infinite  goodness;  Thou  hast  united  in  him 
innumerable  forces  incessantly  at  work  like  so 


1 74 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


many  instruments,  so  as  to  preserve  in  its  en¬ 
tirety  this  beautiful  house  containing  his  im¬ 
mortal  soul,  and  these  forces  act  with  all  the 
order,  concord  and  harmony  imaginable.  But 
if  weakness  or  violent  passion  should  disturb 
this  harmony,  these  forces  would  act  against 
one  another  and  the  body  return  to  the  dust 
whence  it  came.  Thou  sendest  then  to  man  Thy 
messengers,  the  diseases  which  announce  the 
approach  of  danger,  and  bid  him  prepare  to 
overcome  them.  The  Eternal  Providence  has 
appointed  me  to  watch  o’er  the  life  and  health 
of  Thy  creatures.  May  the  love  of  my  art 
actuate  me  at  all  times,  may  neither  avarice, 
nor  miserliness,  nor  the  thirst  for  glory  or  a 
great  reputation  engage  my  mind;  for,  enemies 
of  truth  and  philanthropy,  they  could  easily  de¬ 
ceive  me  and  make  me  forgetful  of  my  lofty  * 
aim  of  doing  good  to  Thy  children.  Endow  me 
with  strength  of  heart  and  mind  so  that  both 
may  be  always  ready  to  serve  the  rich  and  the 
poor,  the  good  and  the  wicked,  friend  and 
enemy,  and  that  I  may  never  see  in  the  patient 
anything  else  but  a  fellow-creature  in  pain. 

“  ‘If  physicians  more  learned  than  I  wish  to 
guide  and  counsel  me,  inspire  me  with  confi¬ 
dence  in,  obedience  toward  the  recognition  of 
them,  for  the  study  of  the  science  is  great.  It 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  SCIENCES.  175 

is  not  given  to  one  alone  to  see  all  that  others 
see.  May  I  be  moderate  in  everything  except 
in  the  knowledge  of  this  science;  as  far  as  it  is 
concerned  may  I  be  insatiable;  grant  me 
strength  and  opportunity  to  always  correct 
what  1  have  acquired,  to  always  extend  its 
domain;  for  knowledge  is  immense  and  the 
spirit  of  man  can  also  extend  infinitely,  to  daily 
enrich  itself  with  new  acquirements.  To-day 
he  can  discover  his  errors  of  yesterday  and  to¬ 
morrow  he  may  obtain  new  light  on  what  he 
thinks  himself  sure  of  to-day. 

“  ‘0,  God,  Thou  hast  appointed  me  to  watch 
o’er  the  life  and  death  of  Thy  creatures;  here 
am  I,  ready  for  my  vocation.’  ” 

THE  LAW. 

The  remarkable  tendency  of  the  Jews  to  a 
legal  life  is  easily  accounted  for  when  we  re¬ 
member  that  their  chief  intellectual  pursuit  in 
the  immediate  past  has  been  connected  with  the 
Talmud,  a  work  eminently  legal  in  contents  and 
tone,  which,  in  the  words  of  an  eminent  Jewish 
writer,  “by  the  method  of  its  study  has  been 
well  adapted  to  develop  a  capacity  for  seeing 
and  stating  the  pros  and  cons  of  any  possible 
subject.’’ 

Turning  first  to  Germany,  we  meet  with 


176 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


Eduard  Gans  (1798-1839),  the  great  jurist,  the 
associate  of  Hegel,  whose  philosophical  opinions 
he  adopted.  He  treated  the  science  of  law  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  Hegelian  philosophy.  At  twenty- 
two  he  became  a  doctor  of  law  and  in  his  works 
assailed  the  scientific  principles  of  the  historical 
school  of  jurisprudence  then  supported  by  the 
great  names  of  Savigny  and  Hugo.  Having  be¬ 
come  a  nominal  convert  to  Christianity,  he  was 
appointed  professor  extraordinary  in  the  Uni¬ 
versity  of  Berlin,  where  his  lectures  drew 
crowded  audiences.  Edward  Lasker  (1839-89) 
gave  to  the  world  an  erudite  work  on  the  con¬ 
stitutional  history  of  Prussia.  L.  Goldschmidt 
(1829-97)  was  another  distinguished  German 
jurist.  Distinguished  among  Dutch  jurists  is 
T.  B.  C.  Asser  (b.  1838). 

In  France,  Isaac  Adolphe  Cremieux  (1796- 
1881)  won  immortal  renown.  I.  Luzzatti 
(b.  1847)  is  the  leading  Italian  jurist.  J.  Glaser 
(1831-85)  was  Austria’s  greatest  jurist.  Francis 
Henry  Goldsmid,  in  1833,  was  the  first  Jew  ever 
admitted  to  the  English  bar.  In  1842  John 
Simon  became  the  second  Jewish  barrister  in 
England  and  the  first  to  practice  at  the  com¬ 
mon-law  bar.  And  when  the  Jew  was  allowed 
to  become  a  lawyer  he  still  had  the  prejudice 
and  bigotry  of  his  neighbors  to  contend  with. 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  SCIENCES.  177 

Though  in  comparatively  a  new  field,  Sir 
George  Jessel,  master  of  the  rolls  in  England  in 
1873,  was  recognized  as  one  of  the  greatest  prac¬ 
tical  lawyers  of  the  age.  Judah  P.  Benjamin, 
after  having  attained  eminence  in  the  United 
States  Senate,  was  a  cabinet  officer  in  the 
Confederate  government.  He  resumed  the 
practice  of  law  in  England,  and  was  acknowl¬ 
edged  by  Sir  Henry  James  and  Sir  Charles 
Russell  to  be  the  leader  of  the  English  bar  at 
the  time  of  his  death.  Sir  G.  Lewis  is  the 
English  Choate. 

In  the  United  States  the  Jews  as  advocates, 
jurists  and  writers  are  acknowledged  by  their 
Christian  brethren  their  close  competitors.  And 
yet  not  many  years  ago  in  New  York  an  esti¬ 
mable  and  accomplished  gentleman  was  rejected 
as  a  member  of  the  Bar  Association,  “for  no 
other  reason  that  can  be  conceived,”  indig¬ 
nantly  said  one  of  the  leading  members,  “ex¬ 
cept  that  he  was  a  Jew.”  Presumptively  a  man 
who  is  an  honorable  member  of  the  Bar  should 
receive  the  same  recognition  which  is  accorded 
to  his  Gentile  brethren,  and  his  honor  and 
ability,  regardless  of  his  race  or  creed,  should 
make  him  a  fit  member  of  the  association.  The 
few  hostile  votes,  however,  represented  the 
very  old  and  very  universal  prejudice. 


The  Jew  in  Politics. 


It  is  because  he  is  a  Jew  that  I  would  urge  his  appointment  as 
a  fit  recognition  of  this  remarkable  people,  who  are  becoming 
large  contributors  to  American  prosperity,  and  whose  intelli¬ 
gence,  morality  and  large  liberality  in  all  public  measures  for 
the  welfare  of  society  deserve  and  should  receive  from  the  hands 
of  the  government  some  such  recognition.  Is  it  not  also  a  duty 
to  set  forth  in  this  quiet  but  effectual  method  the  genius  of 
American  government,  which  has  under  its  fostering  care  people 
of  all  civilized  nations,  and  which  treats  them  without  regard  to 
civil  or  religious  race  peculiarities  as  common  citizens?  We  send 
Danes  to  Denmark,  Germans  to  Germany,  we  reject  no  man  be¬ 
cause  he  is  a  Frenchman.  Why  should  we  not  make  a  crowning 
testimony  to  the  genius  of  our  people  by  sending  a  Hebrew  to 
Turkey?  The  ignorance  and  superstition  of  mediaeval  Europe 
may  account  for  the  prejudices  of  that  dark  age.  But  how  a 
Christian  in  our  day  can  turn  from  a  Jew  I  cannot  imagine. 
Christianity  itself  suckled  at  the  bosom  of  Judaism;  our  roots 
are  in  the  Old  Testament.  We  are  Jews  ourselves  gone  to  blos¬ 
som  and  fruit.  Christianity  is  Judaism  in  evolution,  and  it 
would  seem  strange  for  the  seed  to  turn  against  the  stock  on 
which  it  was  grown. — Henry  Ward  Beecher,  in  a  letter  to 
President  Cleveland  urging  Mr.  Oscar  Straus’s  appointment  as 
Minister  to  Turkey, 


THE  JEW  IN  POLITICS. 


181 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  JEW  IN  POLITICS. 

To  go  no  further  back  than  the  tenth  century, 
we  find  that  politics  as  well  as  literature,  medi¬ 
cine  and  philology  reached  its  climax  among 
the  Spanish  Jews.  They  were  not  only  ac¬ 
knowledged  the  greatest  thinkers,  but  were 
nearly  always  men  of  the  noblest  character, 
taking  an  important  part  in  governmental 
affairs.  Chasdai  Ben  Isaac  Ibn  Shaprut  (915- 
970)  was  practically  minister  of  foreign  affairs 
to  his  country,  and  took  a  conspicuous  part  in 
the  embassies  which  were  sent — the  one  by  the 
Byzantine  Emperor,  Constantine  VIII.,  the  other 
by  the  German  Emperor,  Otho  I. — to  the  court 
of  Cordova.  In  941  he  was  made  the  diplomatic 
agent  of  Abdul  Rahman  III.  In  the  eleventh 
century,  under  King  Habus  of  Granada,  and 
under  Badis  his  successor,  Samuel  Ibn  Nagrela 
was  for  thirty  years  the  practical  ruler  of  the 
kingdom,  living  in  the  palace  of  the  king. 
Under  Ali  in  Spain  several  Jews  were  ambassa¬ 
dors.  The  chief  diplomat  and  ambassador  to 


182 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


various  courts  in  the  reign  of  Alphonso  VI.  of 
Castile  was  Amram  Ibn  Shalbib.  Under  Alphon¬ 
so  VIII.,  Joseph  Ben  Salamo  Ibn  Shoshan  was 
called  prince,  and  stood  very  close  to  the  king. 
King  Alfonso  Keimundez  in  the  twelfth  century 
made  one  Ibn  Ezra  commander  of  the  fortress 
Calatravas,  which  he  conquered,  and  conferred 
upon  him  the  title  of  prince.  In  1149  he  was 
made  marshal  of  the  king’s  court.  Don  Joseph 
de  Ecijoa  (Benveniste  Halevi)  was  treasurer 
to  Alphonso  XI.  and  privy-councillor.  Jechiel 
Ben  Abraham  was  financial  adviser  of  Pope 
Alexander  III. 

In  the  thirteenth  century  Don  Meir  de  Malea 
was  treasurer  to  Alphonso  X.,  and  his  son,  Don 
Zag,  succeeded  him.  Don  Samuel  Ben  Meir 
Alavi,  was  private  counsellor  of  Don  Pedro  of 
Castile,  while  other  Jews  were  given  high  posi¬ 
tions  at  the  court,  and  for  the  favors  shown 
them  Don  Pedro  was  called  a  Jew  by  his 
enemies. 

We  find  that  even  in  the  fifteenth  century,  in 

spite  of  the  Inquisition,  Abraham  Benveniste 
had  great  influence  with  Juan  II.  Juan  de 
Pacheco,  the  king’s  counsellor,  was  of  Jewish 
extraction. 

The  long  line  of  Jewish  statesmen  in  Spain 
worthily  culminates  in  Don  Isaac  Abarbanel, 


THE  JEW  IN  POLITIC*.  183 

financial  adviser  to  Alphonso  V.  of  Portugal. 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  called  him  to  assist  them 
with  his  financial  experience.  But  his  high 
position  and  commanding  influence  did  not  save 
him  from  becoming  a  martyr  to  his  belief. 

In  Portugal,  King  Don  Ferdinand  had  Don 
Judah  as  his  minister  of  finance  and  Don  David 
Negro  as  privy-councillor.  Expelled  from 
Spain  and  Portugal,  these  martyrs  to  their  an¬ 
cient  faith  found  refuge  in  Italy,  where  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  under  the  privileges  accorded 
them  by  Alexander  VI.,  Julius  II.,  Leo  X.,  Cle¬ 
ment  VII.,  and  Sixtus  V.,  they  soon  obtained 
great  power. 

With  the  settlement  in  the  seventeenth  cen¬ 
tury  of  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  exiles  in 
Amsterdam  and  Hamburg  began  the  prosperity 
of  those  cities.  Isaac  Suaso,  created  Baron 
Avernes  de  Gras,  advanced  two  million  guilders 
to  William  of  Orange  when  he  went  to  England 
to  seek  the  crown,  saying:  “If  you  succeed 
you  will  repay  me;  if  not  I  shall  lose  it.”  Fran¬ 
cesco  Melo  assisted  the  State  of  Holland  with 
his  wealth,  while  De  Pinto  left  several  millions 
for  charitable  purposes,  not  only  to  Jewish  in¬ 
stitutions  but  to  the  State,  to  Christian  orphan¬ 
ages  and  to  priests.  The  Texeiras  and  Daniel 
Abenser  of  Hamburg  advanced  money  to  the 


184 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


King  of  Poland,  while  Solomon  de  Medina,  the 
London  merchant,  was  knighted  by  Queen 
Anne. 

THE  JEWS  IN  GEKMANY. 

Not  only  do  the  Jews  in  Germany  occupy  the 
most  important  professional  chairs  in  the  Ger¬ 
man  universities,  not  only  do  they  possess  more 
riches  than  their  non-Jewish  neighbors,  driving 
the  best  horses  and  the  handsomest  carriages 
and  inhabit  the  most  splendid  mansions,  not 
only  do  they  lead  in  the  world  of  art,  science 
and  literature,  all  of  which  are  at  the  bottom  of 
the  anti-Semitic  agitation  in  Germany,  but  in 
politics  they  take  front  rank.  Ferdinand  Las- 
selle,  the  darling  of  the  German  working  classes, 
jurist,  economist,  orator,  philosopher  and  poet, 
made  Socialism  a  force  in  European  politics, 
and  when  he  died  in  a  duel  in  1863,  at  the  age 
of  thirty-eight,  Bismarck  and  he  were  con¬ 
sidered  the  two  foremost  men  of  the  Fatherland. 

Edward  Lasker,  another  idol  of  the  German 
working  people,  was  born  in  Jarocin,  in  Posen, 
Prussian  Poland,  October  14,  1829.  He  became 
known  as  a  statesman  by  his  work  on  the  con¬ 
stitutional  history  of  Prussia,  and  as  a  member 
of  the  Prussian  Chamber,  and  subsequently  of 
the  North  German  and  German  Imperial  Parlia¬ 
ments.  He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the 


THE  JEW  IN  POLITICS. 


1S5 


National  Liberal  Party,  although  on  more  than 
one  occasion  he  voted  with  the  Progressive 
party.  He  was  a  member  of  his  political  party 
just  so  long  as  it  upheld  justice.  He  was  a  pro¬ 
moter  of  the  union  of  the  Southern  and  Northern 
States  of  Germany.  He  was  for  years  the  ac¬ 
knowledged  leader  in  the  Reichstag.  He  was 
for  a  long  time  a  powerful  supporter  of  Bismarck 
until  the  latter’s  administration  introduced  a 
bill  which  aimed  to  limit  the  freedom  of  speech 
in  Parliament.  Thenceforth  Lasker  became  Bis¬ 
marck’s  decided  antagonist.  In  1848  Herr  J. 
Mannheimer  was  elected  to  the  Presidency  of 
the  Austrian  Diet.  The  famous  Gabriel  Riesser 
the  same  year  was  elected  Minister  of  State  to 
the  Prince  Protector  of  Germany,  John  of  Aus¬ 
tria.  Ludwig  Bamberger,  Max  Hirsch,  Anton 
Ree,  Ludwig  Lowe,  Leopold  Sonneman,  Max 
Kayser,  and  E.  Singer  have  fearlessly  expressed 
their  opinions  in  the  German  Parliament. 

Bismarck,  whose  nature  drew  its  inspiration 
out  of  the  time  when  “Polen,  Juden  und  Fran- 
zosen”  were  a  trinity  of  bugbears  for  the  wor¬ 
shippers  of  royal  rascality  in  Europe — yet  this 
man,  no  friend  of  the  Jews,  in  a  debate  in  the 
Prussian  Landtag  during  the  session  of  1871, 
said: 

“In  my  position  as  President  of  the  Ministry 


186  JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 

I  must  repudiate  any  obligation  to  fill  the  places 
in  the  civil  service  with  Koman  Catholics  ac¬ 
cording  to  their  proportionate  number  in  the 
population  of  the  country.  .  .  .  The  exist¬ 

ence  of  a  distinctively  religious  body  in  a  polit¬ 
ical  assembly  is  in  itself  a  monstrous  phenom¬ 
enon.  .  .  .  This  tends  to  make  religion  the 

subject  of  parliamentary  debates.  ...  I 
adhere  to  the  principle  that  every  religion 
should  be  allowed  perfect  freedom,  without 
considering  it,  for  that  reason,  necessary  that  it 
should  be  represented  in  the  executive  depart¬ 
ments  in  the  same  ratio  as  in  the  population. 
Every  religious  body  would  have  as  much  right 
as  the  Catholics  to  claim  this:  the  Lutherans  as 
well  as  the  Jews,  and  I  have  found  it  is  the  lat¬ 
ter  particularly  who  are  most  distinguished  by 
their  special  intelligence  and  capacity  for  ad¬ 
ministrative  functions.” 

Moses  Godefroi,  the  Dutch  advocate,  in  1860 
was  appointed  Minister  of  Justice  by  the  King 
of  Holland. 

THE  JEWS  IN  FRENCH  POLITICS. 

In  France,  at  the  beginning  of  this  century, 
Jews  had  already  distinguished  themselves  in 
the  army  of  the  First  Napoleon.  During  and 
since  the  reign  of  Louis  Philippe  many  French 


THE  JEW  IN  POLITICS*.  187 

Jews  have  won  fame  by  the  exercise  of  their 
brilliant  talents  at  the  Bar,  in  the  Senate,  in  the 
Army  and  also  as  Ministers  of  State. 

Isaac  Adolphe  Cremienx  (1796-1881),  whose 
eloquence  and  thorough  legal  knowledge 
soon  brought  him  to  public  notice,  became 
a  member  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  in 
1842.  He  encouraged  the  Revolution  of  1848 
and  advised  Louis  Philippe  to  quit  France. 
Under  the  Provisional  Government  he  held 
the  important  office  of  Minister  of  Justice. 
After  the  surrender  of  Napoleon  III.  at 
Sedan,  he  again  became  Minister  of  Justice. 
His  own  donation  toward  the  payment  of  the 
war  debt  to  Germany  was  one  hundred  thou¬ 
sand  francs.  After  serving  faithfully  in  the 
National  Assembly,  the  land  of  his  birth  made 
him  a  life-senator. 

Achille  Fould  (1800-67),  under  the  Presi¬ 
dency  of  Louis  Napoleon,  was  four  times 
Minister  of  Finance.  His  disagreement  with 
the  President  led  him  twice  to  retire  from 
office,  but  he  was  each  time  reappointed.  In 
1852  he  was  made  Senator  and  Minister  of 
State,  and  was  created  a  Commander  of  the 
Legion  of  Honor.  The  great  ultra  liberal, 
Gambetta  (1838-1882),  was  of  Genoese-Jewish 
descent.  David  Raynal  of  Bordeaux  became 


188 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


Senator,  Minister  of  Public  Works,  and  Minister 
of  the  Interior — the  real  ruler  of  the  French  Ke- 
public,  ninety  years  after  the  emancipation  of 
the  Jews.  E.  B.  Millaud,  Senator  and  Minister 
of  Public  Works;  Jules  Simon,  Minister  of  Edu¬ 
cation  and  Keligion  under  Thiers  from  February 
19,  1871  to  May  24,  1873;  Camille  See,  the  suc¬ 
cessful  champion  of  female  education;  Alfred 
Naquet,  friend  and  adviser  of  General  Boulan¬ 
ger,  are  a  few  other  names  of  Jews  who  have 
distinguished  themselves  in  French  politics. 
Castelar,  the  foremost  Kepublican  of  Spain,  is 
said  to  have  been  of  Jewish  lineage. 

ITALY. 

It  is  not  much  more  than  sixty-five  years 
since  the  Jews  were  permitted  any  liberties  in 
Italy.  Yet  under  the  most  adverse  circum¬ 
stances  Isaac  Pesaro  Maurogonato  became  “an 
athlete  in  parliamentary  debate.”  He  was 
born  at  Venice,  November  15,  1817.  After  hav¬ 
ing  achieved  great  success  as  a  lawyer  he 
turned  his  attention  to  politics.  In  1848  he  be¬ 
came  Postmaster-General  of  Venice,  and  in  1849 
Minister  of  Finance  and  Commerce.  In  the  dis¬ 
charge  of  his  duties  in  the  latter  office  his  busi¬ 
ness  qualities  were  so  conspicuously  manifested 
that  after  the  fall  of  the  Provisional  Govern- 


THE  JEW  IN  POLITICS. 


189 


ment  and  the  return  of  the  Austrians  to  Venice, 
one  of  the  authorities,  finding  the  office  so  skill¬ 
fully  conducted,  and  every  payment  carefully 
accounted  for,  that  he  exclaimed:  “I  never 
would  have  thought  that  these  Republican 
rebels  could  be  so  honest.”  When  Venice  be¬ 
came  a  part  of  the  kingdom  of  Italy  in  1860, 
Maurogonato  was  elected  a  deputy  to  Parlia¬ 
ment,  a  position  which  he  filled  so  agreeably 
that  for  many  years  he  ranked  among  the  life- 
senators  of  his  native  country.  In  this  connec¬ 
tion  we  must  mention  D.  Manin  (1804-57),  the 
Italian  patriot  and  defender  of  Venice. 

Only  since  the  establishment  of  the  Kingdom 
under  Victor  Emanuel  II.  have  Italian-born 
Jews  enjoyed  equal  civil  and  political  rights 
with  their  fellow-countrymen.  Yet  the  people 
who  were  considered  the  lowest  have  by  their 
talents  and  character  with  astounding  rapidity 
reached  the  highest  round  in  the  ladder  of  politi¬ 
cal  fame.  Luzzatti  is  the  present  Minister  of 
Finance,  and  in  municipal  and  national  affairs 
the  Jews  are  everywhere  recognized  as  among 
the  first  citizens  of  the  kingdom. 

ENGLAND. 

The  first  gleam  of  hope  for  civil  and  religious 
liberty  in  England  was  the  repeal  of  the  Test 


100  JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 

and  Corporation  Acts  in  1828.  This  first  deci¬ 
sive  move  in  the  right  direction  was  received 
with  exultation  by  Roman  Catholics,  Christian 
dissenters  and  British  Jews.  But  the  clause 
“On  the  true  faith  of  a  Christian”  appended  to 
the  Oath  of  Abjuration,  a  clause  intended  as  a 
protection  against  any  mental  reservation  on 
the  part  of  Roman  Catholics  to  jurisdiction  in 
England,  although  not  intended  to  affect  Jews, 
Jew-baiters  used  this  unintentional  clause  in 
the  new  declaration  as  a  bar  to  the  Jews’  ad¬ 
mission  to  Parliament,  to  offices  under  the 
crown,  and  all  municipal  and  corporation  offices. 
Many  attempts  were  made  to  relieve  the  Jews 
from  the  political  and  civil  disabilities  from 
which  they  were  then  suffering.  In  1835  David 
Salomons  was  elected  Sheriff  of  London  and 
Middlesex,  and  to  enable  him  to  serve  the  office 
without  subscribing  to  the  declaration  “On  the 
true  faith  of  a  Christian,”  a  bill  was  passed  en¬ 
titled  “The  Sheriff’s  Declaration  Act.”  In  the 
same  year  Mr.  Salomons  was  elected  Alderman 
of  the  Ward  of  Aldgate,  but  being  unable  to 
take  the  Abjuration  Oath,  he  could  not  accept 
the  office,  which  was  declared  vacant  and  a 
Christian  elected.  Various  emancipation  bills 
were  placed  before  Parliament,  but  failed  to  re¬ 
move  the  disabilities  which  then  affected  the 


THE  JEW  IN  POLITICS. 


191 


Jews  in  England,  so  that  the  efforts  of  the 
friends  of  eqnal  rights  were  directed  toward  re¬ 
moving  the  disabilities  gradually  by  successive 
efforts.  In  1837  Moses  Montefiore  was  elected 
Sheriff  of  London  and  Middlesex,  and  received 
the  honor  of  knighthood  from  Queen  Victoria 
upon  her  first  visit  to  London.  In  the  same 
year  David  Salomons  was  defeated  in  the 
Borough  of  Shoreham,  this  being  the  first  at¬ 
tempt  of  any  Jew  to  enter  Parliament.  In  1844 
David  Salomons  was  for  the  second  time  elected 
an  alderman  for  the  City  of  London,  but  was 
again  prevented  from  accepting  the  office  be¬ 
cause  he  could  not  subscribe  to  the  oath  which 
he  was  bound  to  take.  In  this  same  year  British 
Jews  were  relieved  from  the  obligation  to  sub¬ 
scribe  to  the  oath,  “On  the  faith  of  a  true  Chris¬ 
tian,”  upon  being  elected  to  municipal  offices. 
In  1846  Sir  Moses  Montefiore  and  Baron  An¬ 
thony  de  Rothschild  were  made  baronets  of  the 
United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 
In  1847  Baron  Lionel  de  Rothschild  was  sent  to 
Parliament  by  the  Liberal  electors  of  London, 
but  unable  to  take  the  oath,  “On  the  faith  of  a 
true  Christian,”  he  was  not  permitted  to  take 
his  seat.  The  contrast  between  Parliament  and 
the  people  was  proven  by  Baron  Rothschild’s 
re-election  for  the  City  of  London  in  the  years 


192 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


1849,  1852,  and  1857.  In  1851  Alderman  Salo¬ 
mons  was  returned  to  Parliament  as  a  member 
for  Greenwich.  He  insisted  on  taking  the  oath 
upon  the  Old  Testament,  and  omitting  the 
declaration,  “On  the  faith  of  a  true  Chris¬ 
tian,5'  concluded  with  “So  help  me  God!”  He 
took  his  seat,  voted  and  spoke  three  times  on 
the  very  question  of  his  right  to  remain  in  the 
House,  but  he  was  compelled  to  withdraw.  An 
action  was  brought  against  him  to  recover  from 
him  three  penalties  of  five  hundred  pounds,  for 
sitting  and  speaking  three  times,  and  voting  in 
three  divisions  in  the  House  of  Commons  without 
having  taken  the  oath.  The  affair  led  to  long 
legal  proceedings  before  the  Court  of  Exchequer. 
In  1855  Mr.  Salomons  was  elected  Lord  Mayor 
of  London,  becoming  not  only  the  first  Jewish 
Lord  Mayor,  but  the  first  Jewish  member  of  the 
Privy  Council.  Of  Sir  David  the  Times  said: 
“At  last  we  have  for  the  first  time  a  Lord  Mayor 
who  can  speak  the  Queen’s  English  with  pro¬ 
priety.”  In  1857  Baron  Lionel  de  Rothschild, 
having  resigned  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Com¬ 
mons,  was  again  re-elected.  The  Liberal  elec¬ 
tors  of  London  were  determined  never  to  cease 
electing  a  Jew  to  Parliament  until  their  efforts 
were  crowned  with  having  him  seated.  Through 
all  these  years  bills  removing  the  disabilities  of 


THE  JEW  IN  POLITICS. 


193 


the  Jews  passed  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
were  as  regularly  rejected  by  the  House 
of  Lords.  In  1858  a  new  oaths  bill,  applying 
only  to  Jews,  was  carried  in  the  House  of  Com¬ 
mons  and  referred  to  the  House  of  Lords,  and 
was  passed  with  certain  amendments  which 
were  not  approved  by  the  House  of  Commons. 
A  conference  of  both  Houses  was  consequently 
appointed,  and  Baron  Lionel  de  Rothschild  was 
named  to  serve  on  the  committee.  To  the  sur¬ 
prise  of  his  brother  Lords,  the  Earl  of  Lucan 
gave  notice  that  he  would  introduce  a  bill  au¬ 
thorizing  either  House  of  Parliament  to  admit 
Jews  by  resolution  without  the  obligation  to 
subscribe  to  the  words,  “On  the  faith  of  a  true 
Christian.’ ’  This  bill  afterward  passed  the 
House  of  Lords  on  the  16th  of  July,  1858,  and 
the  House  of  Commons  on  the  21st  of  the  same 
month,  and  on  the  23d  it  received  royal  assent, 
and  Baron  de  Rothschild  took  his  seat  in  the 
House  of  Commons  on  the  26th  of  July.  The 
year  following  Mr.  Alderman  Salomons  was  for 
the  second  time  returned  to  Parliament  and 
given  his  seat.  In  this  year  Benjamin  Phillips 
was  elected  Sheriff  of  London  and  Middlesex. 
In  1860  Sir  Francis  Goldsmid,  Bart.,  Q.C.,  was 
returned  for  Reading.  From  this  time  onward 
Jews  became  conspicuous  in  English  politics. 


194 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


In  1864  Mr.  John  Simon  was  mad©  a  sergeant- 
at-law,  he  being  the  first  Jew  to  receive  that  an¬ 
cient  legal  rank.  In  this  same  year  Sir  Benja¬ 
min  Phillips  was  elected  Lord  Mayor  of  Lon¬ 
don,  and  for  the  creditable  manner  in  which  he 
filled  this  office  he  received  from  her  majesty 
the  honor  of  knighthood  on  the  recommenda¬ 
tion  of  the  then  Premier,  the  Earl  of  Derby. 
Since  then  the  following  distinguished  men 
have  served  in  Parliament:  Sir  Francis  H.  Gold- 
smid,  Bart.,  Q.C.,  Baron  Meyer  de  Rothschild, 
Mr.  Nathaniel  de  Rothschild,  Mr.  Frederick  D. 
Goldsmid,  Mr.  Joseph  de  Aguilar  Samuda,  Sir 
George  Jessel,  Q.C.;  Mr.  Sergeant  Simon,  Sir 
Nathaniel  Meyer  de  Rothschild,  Mr.  Julian 
Goldsmid,  Mr.  Saul  Isaac,  Mr.  Arthur  Cohen, 
Q.C.,  Baron  Henry  de  Worms,  Mr.  Sydney 
Woolf,  Baron  Ferdinand  de  Rothschild,  and  the 
Hon.  Walter  Lionel  de  Rothschild,  who  was  re¬ 
cently  elected  without  opposition,  succeeding 
his  uncle,  the  late  Baron  James  de  Rothschild. 

The  remarkable  rise  of  the  British  Jew  in 
politics  reached  its  highest  point  in  Benjamin 
Disraeli  (1805-81),  Earl  of  Beaconsfield,  Premier 
of  Great  Britain,  and  in  his  day  one  of  the  con¬ 
trolling  powers  in  European  affairs.  The  late 
Lord  Herschell,  Chairman  of  the  Anglo-Ameri¬ 
can  Joint  High  Commissioners  from  Great  Brit- 


THE  JEW  IN  POLITICS.  195 

ain,  twice  Lord  High  Chancellor  during  the 
Gladstonian  ministries,  and  former  Chancellor  of 
the  London  University,  whose  death  at  Wash¬ 
ington,  D.  C.,  March  1,  1899,  caused  such  pro¬ 
found  sorrow,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  adjourning  for  a  day  as  a  mark  of 
respect,  and  who  a  few  days  before  his  death 
was  complimented  with  a  seat  on  that  high 
bench — a  compliment  which  had  been  extended 
only  once  previously,  in  the  instance  of  the 
then  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  England — was  of 
Jewish  descent.  A.  Faudel  Phillips,  the  fourth 
of  his  faith  who  became  Lord  Mayor  of  London, 
and  Sir  Joseph  Wolff  Drummond,  the  English 
Minister  to  Turkey,  are  only  a  few  names  of 
scores  of  distinguished  Jews  in  the  municipal 
and  national  politics  of  England  in  our  day. 

IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  SENATE. 

Judah  P.  Benjamin,  of  Louisiana,  on  his  with¬ 
drawal  from  the  United  States  Senate,  on  Feb¬ 
ruary  4,  I860,  was  at  once  appointed  Attorney- 
General  in  the  Provisional  Government  of  the 
Southern  Confederacy.  In  the  following  Au¬ 
gust  he  was  appointed  Acting  Secretary  of  War; 
subsequently  he  became  Secretary  of  State, 
which  position  he  held  until  the  downfall  of  the 
Southern  Confederacy.  Joseph  Seligman  de- 


196 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


dined,  for  personal  reasons,  the  Secretaryship 
of  the  Treasury  in  President  Grant’s  cabinet. 
Isidor  Straus  declined  the  Postmaster-General¬ 
ship  in  President  Cleveland’s  cabinet.  Other 
Jewish  United  States  Senators  have  been  David 
L.  Yulee,  of  Florida;  B.  F.  Jonas,  from  Louis¬ 
iana;  and  at  present,  Joseph  Simon,  of  Oregon. 

JEWISH  CONGRESSMEN. 

Israel  Jacobs  was  the  first  Hebrew  member 
of  the  House  of  Representatives  from  Penn¬ 
sylvania,  1791  to  1793.  Michael  W.  Ash  was 
a  member  of  Congress  from  Pennsylvania,  1835 
to  1837.  David  S.  Kauffman,  after  serving  as 
speaker  of  the  Texas  Assembly,  represented 
his  State  in  Congress  from  1847  to  1857.  In 
1845  Lewis  C.  Levin  was  sent  to  Congress  from 
Philadelphia,  and  was  twice  re-elected.  Meyer 
Strouse  was  Congressman  from  Pennsylvania 
1848  to  1852,  and  Philip  Phillips,  from  Alabama, 
1853  to  1855.  Emanuel  B.  Hart  of  New  York 
was  elected  to  Congress  in  1857 ;  after  serving 
his  first  term  he  was  made  Surveyor  of  the  Port 
of  New  York.  Henry  M.  Phillips  of  Philadel¬ 
phia,  in  his  day  one  of  the  best  constitutional 
lawyers  in  the  country,  was  elected  to  Congress 
in  1856.  Leonard  Meyers  of  Philadelphia  rep¬ 
resented  the  Third  District  from  1863  to  1875, 


THE  JEW  IN  POLITICS. 


19? 


Meyer  Strouse,  of  Pottsville,  Pennsylvania, 
served  in  Congress  from  1863  to  1867.  Edwin 
Einstein,  of  New  York  City,  from  1876-78,  and  a 
few  years  ago  was  the  Republican  candidate 
for  Mayor  of  New  York.  Isidor  Straus,  one  of 
New  York  City’s  public-spirited  citizens,  was 
sent  to  Congress  in  1892,  declining  a  re-election. 
Among  other  Jewish  Congressmen  may  be 
named  Leopold  Morse  of  Boston,  Isidor  Rayner 
of  Baltimore,  Nathan  Frank  of  St.  Louis,  A. 
Meyer  of  Louisiana,  and  Jefferson  M.  Levvy  of 
New  York. 


JEWISH  JUDGES. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  Hebrews  who 
have  held  important  judgeships:  Moses  Levy, 
whose  admission  to  the  Bar  of  Philadelphia  dates 
as  far  back  as  March  19,  1778,  after  occupying 
various  offices  became  Presiding  Judge  of  “the 
District  Court  for  City  and  County  of  Philadel¬ 
phia.”  Mayer  Isaac  Franks  has  been  men¬ 
tioned  as  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Penn¬ 
sylvania,  but  the  exact  time  when  he  served 
cannot  be  determined.  Franklin  J.  Moses  (1804- 
77)  was  Chief  Justice  of  South  Carolina.  Solo¬ 
mon  Hydenfeldt  was  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  California  in  1851.  Among  the  Su¬ 
preme  Court  Judges  of  New  York  we  can  recall 


198  JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 

Joseph  E.  Newburger,  W.  N.  Cohen  and  David 
Levintritt. 

During  the  first  decade  of  the  present  century 
Solomon  B.  Nones  was  Consul-General  to  Por¬ 
tugal.  President  Madison  appointed  Mordecai 
M.  Noah  Consul-General  to  Tunis.  Colonel 
Max  Einstein  was  appointed  by  President  Lin¬ 
coln  Consul  at  Nuremburg,  Germany;  B.  F. 
Peixotto  was  Consul  at  Lyons  during  the  ad¬ 
ministration  of  Presidents  Hayes,  Garfield  and 
Arthur.  Marcus  Otterbourg  of  New  York  was 
the  first  American  Hebrew  to  occupy  the  high 
office  of  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister 
Plenipotentiary  (to  Mexico).  Oscar  Straus  was 
President  Cleveland’s  and  now  is  President  Mc¬ 
Kinley’s  Minister  to  Turkey.  Solomon  Hirsch 
was  President  Harrison’s  Minister  to  Turkey. 
Bobert  Etting  of  Philadelphia,  first  captain  of 
the  Independent  Blues  in  1798,  was  appointed 
by  President  Thomas  Jefferson  United  States 
Marshal  for  the  State  of  Maryland  in  1801. 
Colonel  Frank  Marx  Etting,  the  historian  of  In¬ 
dependence  Hall,  a  distinguished  Philadelphia 
lawyer,  was  Director  of  Public  Schools.  Theo. 
M.  Etting,  a  lieutenant  in  the  United  States 
navy,  a  successful  lawyer,  and  distinguished  as 
a  writer  on  corporation,  shipping  and  admiralty 
laws,  was  for  many  years  a  conspicuous  mem- 


THE  JEW  IN  POLITICS. 


199 


ber  of  the  Select  Council  in  Philadelphia,  where 
on  all  occasions  he  stood  up  manfully  for  the 
people’s  interests  against  the  rascality  of  the 
political  machine.  By  appointment  of  Presi¬ 
dent  Pierce,  Isaac  Phillips  was  made  General 
Appraiser  of  the  Port  of  New  York,  a  position 
which  he  occupied  for  fifteen  years.  B.  Gold¬ 
smith  and  Philip  Wasserman  have  been  Mayors 
of  Portland,  Oregon.  Colonel  Louis  Fleischner 
and  Edward  Hirsch  have  been  State  Treasurers 
of  Oregon.  Edward  Kanter  has  been  State  Treas¬ 
urer  of  Michigan.  George  W.  Ochs,  President  of 
the  Southern  Publishers’  Association,  Mayor  of 
Chattanooga,  Tennessee;  Raphael  J.  Moses  and 
Judge  Max  Meyerhardt  of  Georgia;  Judge  Klein 
of  Mississippi;  Herman  Meyers,  for  years  Mayor 
of  Savannah;  H.  M.  Hyams,  former  Lieutenant- 
Governor  of  Louisiana;  Morris  Cohen,  of  Ar¬ 
kansas,  whose  “Introduction  to  the  Study  of 
the  Constitution’’  forms  part  of  the  historical 
publications  of  Johns  Hopkins  University; 
Simon  Wolf  appointed  by  President  Grant, 
Recorder  of  Deeds  for  the  District  of  Columbia; 
S.  W.  Rosendale,  formerly  Attorney-General  of 
New  York;  Simon  Sterne,  Jacob  A.  Cantor, 
Julius  Harburger,  the  Seligmans,  Theo.  W. 
Myers,  formerly  Comptroller  of  the  City  of  New 
York,  and  Nathan  Straus,  whose  varied  and  mul- 


200 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


tiplied  labors  in  the  noble  cause  of  humanity 
have  made  his  name  a  household  word  among 
the  poor  of  New  York,  and  who  declined  the 
Democratic  nomination  for  mayor  of  New  York 
City,  these  are  only  a  few  of  hundreds  of  Jews 
who  might  be  named  in  every  section  of  our 
country,  whose  courageous  and  persistent  ad¬ 
vocacy  of  righteousness  in  politics  have  made 
the  Jew  a  mighty  power  for  good  in  municipal, 
State  and  national  life. 


The  Jew  in  Finance. 


The  Jew  is  accused  of  love  of  money,  but  it  is  forgotten  that 
all  other  means  of  distinction  are  denied  him,  that  he  must  rise 
by  wealth  or  not  rise  at  all,  and  if,  as  he  well  knows,  to  insure 
wealth  be  to  insure  rank,  respect,  and  attention  in  society,  does 
the  blame  rest  with  him  who  endeavors  to  acquire  wealth  for  the 
distinction  which  it  will  purchase,  or  with  that  society  which  so 
readily  bows  down  at  the  shrine  of  Mammon  ?  It  is  not  pre¬ 
tended  that  the  Jew  is  a  miser,  that  he  desires  to  acquire  wealth 
merely  from  the  loathsome  gratification  of  hoarding  it.  .  .  . 

The  Jewish  merchant  is  generally  profuse  in  his  expenditure,  he 
has  labored  to  gain  riches  on  account  of  the  respect  which  they 
will  procure  for  him,  and  he  is  proud  of  expending  them  with  the 
same  view. — Dr.  Barnard  Van  Oven — a  once  famous  Anglo- 
Jewish  physician — in  his  appeal  to  the  British  nation  on  behalf 
of  the  Jews  (1831). 


THE  JEW  IN  FINANCE. 


203 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  JEW  IN  FINANCE. 

In  finance  the  Jew  has  for  four  hundred  years 
been  the  factor  that  supplied  the  nations  of  the 
earth  with  money.  The  financial  system  of  the 
world,  its  invention  and  perfection, we  owe  to  the 
Rothschilds — who  were  the  first  to  make  national 
loans  popular.  The  Jew  in  finance  is  almost 
invariably  a  creator  and  not  a  puller-down. 
Most  of  the  great  fortunes  which  have  been 
made,  notably  in  America,  have  been  made  by 
wrecking  railroads  and  other  established  and 
incorporated  industries.  The  Jews  with  com¬ 
paratively  few  exceptions  made  their  money  as 
manufacturers  and  merchants.  Poliakoff,  the 
Russian  railway  king,  the  Pereires,  the  French 
railroad  kings,  and  the  Rothschilds*  are 
among  the  few  exceptions.  Capital  and  Jew 

*  Mayer  Anselm  (Bower)  Rothschild,  the  founder  of  the 
wealthiest  family  in  modern  times,  was  born  in  Frankfort  in  1743 
and  died  there  in  1812.  He  belonged  to  a  poor  Jewish  family 
and  was  a  clerk  in  Hanover  before  establishing  himself  at  Frank¬ 
fort  where  he  started  as  a  money  lender  under  the  “Red  Shield" 
(Rothschild).  Hence  the  name.  Here  his  integrity  and  ability 


204 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


are  not  synonymous  terms— the  leading  spirits 
of  the  antagonistic  forces — capital  and  labor- 
are  Jews,  there  are  financiers  like  the  Roth¬ 
schilds  and  there  are  socialistic  Jews  like  Las- 
selle,  Marx  and  Singer,  the  latter  the  head  of 
the  Socialist  party  in  the  German  Reichstag. 
The  capitalists  cannot  curse  the  Jews,  and  the 
Socialists  cannot  dynamite  the  Jews  without 
abandoning  their  very  leaders. 

Because  some  Jews  are  rich,  all  Jews  are  con¬ 
sidered  so,  and  has  given  rise  to  the  proverb 
“Rich  as  a  Jew.”  One  of  the  causes  of  this 
idea  has  been  that  the  Jewish  poor  have  never 
been  a  burden  to  the  general  population,  but 
have  been  entirely  supported  by  the  Jews  them¬ 
selves.  The  Jews  are  in  fact  the  poorest  of  all 
people  that  can  claim  to  be  civilized.  If  their 
wealth  were  capitalized  and  equally  distributed 
among  the  Jews,  they  would  dispute  with  Ire- 


brought  him  into  relations  with  the  German  government  during 
the  wars  of  Napoleon. 

The  elector  William,  on  his  flight  in  1806,  after  the  invasion  of 
his  states  by  the  French,  intrusted  about  $5,000,000  to  Rothschild 
for  eight  years,  and  the  judicious  investment  of  this  capital  was 
the  foundation  of  his  fortune,  and  so  faithfully  was  this  trust 
administered  that  when  William  was  restored  to  power  Roths¬ 
child  returned  the  value  of  the  property  with  interest.  Remem¬ 
ber  that  the  success  of  the  Rothschilds  had  its  origin  in  the 
honorable  fulfillment  of  a  great  trust,  and  under  circumstances 
when  the  violation  of  the  trust  would  have  been  beyond  legal 
redress. 


THE  JEW  IN  FINANCE. 


205 


land  and  Russia  for  the  lowest  place  in  the  scale 
of  wealth. 

The  six  hundred  thousand  Jews  living  in 
Africa  and  Asia  are  poor.  The  four  and  one- 
half  millions  who  live  in  the  east  of  Europe  are 
only  just  raised  above  pauperism,  while  a  goodly 
proportion  are  sunk  below  even  that  level. 
Among  the  four  millions  of  Russian  Jews  only 
three  names,  Gunzburg,  Poliakoff  and  Brodsky, 
rise  above  the  general  level  of  hard-work¬ 
ing  poverty.  On  the  Continent  beside  the 
Rothschilds,  are  the  names  of  Bischoffsheim, 
Bleichroder,  Hirsch,  Konigswarter,  Oppenheim, 
Pereire,  Reinach,  Stern,  Springer,  Todesco  and 
Warschauer.  Among  the  more  than  twelve 
hundred  millionaires  of  New  York  City  there 
cannot  be  found  more  than  a  dozen  Jewish 
names,  and  not  over  twenty-five  among  the  four 
thousand  millionaires  in  the  country  at  large. 
Surely  this  is  a  small  proportion  for  so  great  a 
population. 

Originally  the  Jews  were  an  agricultural 
people,  and  their  civil  polity  was  framed  spe¬ 
cially  for  this  state  of  things.  The  sons  of 
Shem  built  their  first  cities  remote  from  the 
channels  of  trade,  while  the  race  of  Ham  and 
Japhet  built  upon  the  seashore  and  the  banks 
of  great  rivers.  But  the  persecution  of  the  He- 


206 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


brews  necessarily  made  them  merchants.  De¬ 
nied  citizenship,  subject  at  any  time  to  spoliation 
and  expulsion,  their  only  possible  chance  of  liv¬ 
ing  was  in  traffic,  in  which  they  soon  became 
skilled.  They  naturally  followed  the  channels  of 
commerce  the  world  over — Gentile  persecution 
kept  them  on  the  go — and  to  protect  their  prop¬ 
erty  against  Gentile  thieves,  their  wealth  had  to 
be  portable.  They  therefore  frequently  turned 
it  into  jewels  because  they  could  be  most  securely 
and  most  secretly  kept,  and  in  case  of  flight 
most  easily  removed — this  accounts  for  their 
prominence  in  the  jewelry  business  from  early 
times,  and  hence  too,  their  introduction  of  bills 
of  exchange. 

Prevented  in  many  countries  from  holding 
land,  they  had  no  inducement  to  settle  in  the 
country.  Besides  their  religious  enactments 
(Mishna,  Megilla  I.  3, 4)  only  permit  the  sacred 
functions  of  public  worship  to  be  performed  in 
the  presence  of  ten  males  above  the  age  of  thir¬ 
teen,  the  minimum  for  a  congregation ;  this  re¬ 
quires  that  at  least  forty  souls  shall  dwell  with¬ 
in  accessible  distance.  This  consideration 
explains  the  fact  that  so  few  Jews  dwell  in 
small  villages.  That  the  Jews  tend  toward 
large  towns  is  not  peculiar  to  them— it  is  a  con¬ 
stant  feature  of  modern  statistics. 


THE  JEW  IN  FINANCE. 


207 


THE  JEWS  AS  PIONEERS  IN  INDUSTRIAL  PROGRESS. 

It  would  take  volumes  to  tell  the  Jews’  part 
in  building  up  the  world’s  commerce.  In 
Johannesburg,  South  African  Kepublic,  Kabbi 
Joseph  H.  Hertz  recently  said:  “As  for  his  in¬ 
dustrial  conquests,  it  is  not  easy  to  exaggerate 
the  share  in  the  awakening  of  this  continent 
which  is  due  to  the  enterprise,  the  commercial 
instinct,  the  dash  and  daring  of  the  South  Afri¬ 
can  Jew.  For,  the  current  belief  to  the  con¬ 
trary  notwithstanding,  Jewish  immigration  did 
not  wait  for  the  discovery  of  the  diamond  fields 
and  gold  fields.  Jews  began  to  come  over  in  the 
twenties;  and  before  Kimberley  was,  Jewish 
congregations  were  scattered  over  this  sub-con¬ 
tinent.  And  there  is  not  a  town  in  the  interior 
but  owes  to  the  Jews  its  foundation  or  its  early 
establishment  as  a  trading  and  commercial 
center.  The  halo  of  romance  shines  over  the 
whole  story.  From  Bethulie  to  Bulwayo,  from 
the  Pearl  to  Pretoria,  you  will  everywhere  find 
the  Jew  the  pioneer  of  industrial  progress.  Just 
as  the  Jew  started  the  tobacco  trade  in  Cuba, 
the  sugar  industry  in  Barbadoes,  the  vanilla 
trade  in  Jamaica  to  say  nothing  of  older  coun¬ 
tries,  we  find  that  ever  so  many  South  African 
industries  were  started  and  developed  by  Jews. 


208 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


The  most  useful  work,  Zangwill  truly  remarks, 
which  Israel  has  recently  been  doing,  is  the  un¬ 
noted  form  of  colonization.  The  Jew  is  every¬ 
where  pioneering  and  building  up  States.  And 
say  what  you  will,  commerce  and  diffusion  of 
civilization  are  most  closely  allied.  The  time 
will  come  when  the  services  of  a  De  Pass  to  the 
whaling,  sealing,  and  guano  industries;  of  An¬ 
drade  in  establishing  the  ostrich  feather  indus¬ 
try  ;  of  Mosenthal  in  establishing  the  wool  and 
hide  trades;  and  of  dozens  of  others,  the  “town- 
builders/’  the  pioners  of  Griqualand,  Matabele- 
land,  and  Mashonaland,  will  be  honored  no  less 
than  their  fellow-Jews,  Captain  Joshua  Norden, 
shot  at  the  head  of  his  troops  by  the  Kaffirs  in 
’47,  and  Lieutenant  Elias  de  Pass,  who  so  gal¬ 
lantly  fought  in  the  Kaffir  war  of  ’49.” 

Dr.  K.  Kohler,  writing  in  The  Menorah,  on 
“Commerce  and  Civilization,”  points  the  social¬ 
ist  to  the  danger  of  overdrawing  the  estimate  of 
manual  labor.  The  worker  must  have  behind 
him  the  man  of  commerce.  The  brains  that 
plan,  and  the  pluck  that  opens  new  fields  of  in¬ 
dustry  are  certainly  indispensable  factors  in  a 
progressive  life.  Commerce  is  the  prime  motor 
of  culture  and  civilization. 

“The  trader  who  first  breaks  into  hostile 
camps  of  savages,  offering  them  some  curious 


THE  JEW  IN  FINANCE. 


209 


stuff  or  toy  for  sale  which  caters  to  their  vanity 
or  passion,  may,  for  all  we  know,  as  a  mean 
and  selfish  intruder,  rudely  disturb  them  from 
their  wonted  ease  and  peace.  Who  knows  but 
they  lived  in  communism,  contented  with  what 
their  land  yielded  to  them?  Yet  as  he  rouses 
the  lazy,  inert  masses  from  their  dullness  by  the 
very  craving  and  want  he  excites  in  them,  he 
casts  a  fermenting  element  into  their  stage  of 
life,  and  like  after  eating  the  forbidden  fruit  in 
Paradise,  other  cravings  and  wants  are  sure  to 
follow,  until  from  the  bare  necessities  of  exist¬ 
ence  they  will  be  lured  on  to  more  commodious 
ways  of  living,  and  finally,  while  a  few  lead  and 
others  follow,  they  will  be  drawn  into  closer 
contact  with  culture,  and  as  new  branches  of 
humanity  be  linked  with  ever  stronger  ties  to 
the  world’s  march  of  civilization.  Thus  invol¬ 
untarily  the  simple-minded  peddler  turns  out  to 
be  the  first  pioneer  of  civilization,  and  as  he 
afterward  settles  down  equipped  with  larger 
means  than  the  rest,  his  very  wealth  becomes, 
like  the  mountainous  region  of  the  country,  a 
reservoir  of  blessing,  sending  forth  its  streams 
or  brooklets  near  and  far  to  fertilize  the  land ! 
You  may  as  well  ask  why  did  God  not  flatten 
all  lands  down  to  one  level  as  wonder  why 
wealth  should  accumulate  in  the  hand  of  the 


210 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW 


one,  and  poverty  fall  to  the  lot  of  the  other.  It 
is  just  the  elevated  position,  the  better  situation 
of  the  few  which  excites  the  ambition  and  ac¬ 
tivity  of  the  many.  Glance  over  the  pages  of 
history,  and  you  will  find  commerce  to  be  the 
mighty  power  which  carries  on  its  wings,  in  its 
very  arms,  all  that  makes  humanity  great,  wise, 
and  good.  Art,  literature,  science,  industry, 
and  even  religion,  enter  the  land  in  its  wake. 
Is  it  not  remarkable  that  the  invention  of  the 
very  key  of  knowledge,  the  letters  and  the  pro¬ 
pagation  of  the  first  rudiments  of  art,  mankind 
owes  to  the  first  great  trading  people,  the  Phoe¬ 
nicians?  And  what  were  those  men  who  gave 
us  a  Homer,  a  Phidias  and  an  Aristotle,  the 
everlasting  models  and  masters  of  art,  philoso¬ 
phy,  and  science,  but  the  successors  and  heirs  to 
Phoenician  trade  and  traffic?  What  lent  that  won¬ 
drous  charm  and  splendor  to  the  cities  of  Bagdad 
and  Cordova,  to  that  brilliant  civilization  of  the 
Moor,  if  not  a  commerce  extending  from  Spain 
to  far-off  China?  Commerce  as  inherited  from 
Moorish  Spain  made  Italy  the  mother  and 
cradle  of  all  the  modern  arts  and  sciences,  gave 
it  a  Raphael,  a  Michael  Angelo,  and  a  Pales¬ 
trina,  the  father  of  music.  Follow  all  the  tides 
of  modern  civilization,  and  you  will  see  the 
prosperous  condition  of  commerce  mark  the 


THE  JEW  IN  FINANCE. 


211 


high  water  all  along  until  you  reach  Great  Bri¬ 
tain,  ruling  the  world  with  her  industry,  and 
now  America  is  soon  to  outshine  her  proud 
mother.  Commerce,  in  sending  first  its  drome¬ 
daries  through  inaccessible  deserts  and  its  ships 
over  wide  seas,  not  only  enlarged  the  horizon  of 
and  man,  exploring  and  interlinking  distant  lands 
and  continents,  but  extended  its  gigantic  network 
of  iron  and  electric  wire  all  around  the  globe 
and  better  than  religion  has  thus  far  been  able 
to  do,  has  knit  humanity  together  in  one  common 
bond  of  sympathy  and  interest. 

“Commerce  did  for  humanity  what  religion 
failed  to  do — it  broadened  it.  How  often  in¬ 
terests  of  commerce  outweigh  the  sentiments  of 
sectarian  bigotry  and  race  hatred!  Commerce 
has  been  an  apostle  of  peace  and  a  civilizer  of 
humanity.  It  was  their  commercial  contact 
with  the  seafaring  Phoenicians  which  broad¬ 
ened  the  Jew  and  widened  him  into  a  cosmopol¬ 
itan.  Jewish  commerce  centered  around 
Alexandria,  Damascus,  and  Antioch,  spread 
over  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  opened  the  gate  for 
Christianity  to  enter  the  pagan  world  as  con¬ 
queror.  The  flourishing  trade  of  the  Jews, 
which  made  Spain  the  focus  of  Mediaeval  cul¬ 
ture,  furnished  not  only  the  great  discoverers 
with  the  key  to  unlock  the  new  worlds  with 


212 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


their  inexhaustible  treasures,  but  exercised  its 
influence  in  entire  Christianity.  “Jewish  com¬ 
merce,”  says  Lecky  in  his  “History  of  Rational¬ 
ism,”  “liberated  mankind  from  the  thraldom  of 
the  church,  giving  the  world  the  much-needed 
lesson  of  sound  practical  common  sense.” 

“Need  the  Jews,  then,  be  ashamed  of  their 
specific  commercial  proclivities  which  oppres¬ 
sion  and  persecution  ingrained  into  their  very 
nature?  They  have  helped  to  rear  almost  all 
the  great  metropolitan  centers  of  commerce 
from  Paris,  London  and  Cologne  to  Nuremberg, 
Augsburg  and  Kiev,  for  the  rich  burghers  to 
take  possession  of  them  as  soon  as  their  former 
owners  had  been  driven  away.  Compare  only 
the  Spain  before  with  the  Spain  after  the  expul¬ 
sion  of  the  Jews,  compare  Ireland  and  Sweden, 
where  scarcely  any  Jews  lived,  with  Holland, 
whose  trade  and  banking  system  was  estab¬ 
lished  by  Jews.  Need  our  American  fellow-citi¬ 
zens  feel  any  ‘apprehension’  because  Broadway 
is  lined  with  Jewish  firms,  showing  Jewish  en¬ 
terprise  successfully  competing  with  that  of  the 
shrewdest  Yankee?” 

JEWS  AND  WORK. 

To  the  charge,  “the  Jew  is  not  a  producer, 
he  is  merely  a  consumer,  or  only  a  middle- 


THE  JEW  IN  FINANCE. 


213 


man,”  Rabbi  F.  de  Sola  Mendes  makes  this 
spirited  reply :  “Consumers  play  a  quite  indis¬ 
pensable  role  in  the  drama  of  world-economy. 
If  there  were  no  consumers,  men  would  not  pro¬ 
duce:  to  what  end  should  they?  To  be  a  con¬ 
sumer  is  to  play  a  very  important  part  in  the 
world ;  he  must  first  earn  the  wherewithal  to 
consume,  for  “nothing  for  nothing”  is  the  stern 
law  of  social  economy;  and  secondly,  the  pro¬ 
ducer  cannot  well  get  along  for  any  length  of 
time  without  him. 

“That  he  should  be  a  ‘middleman’  is  also 
quite  considerably  to  his  credit,  this  poor, 
much -judged  Jew.  Men  cannot  eat  their  own 
manufactures  as  a  general  thing — steam  engines, 
shovels,  linens  and  woolens,  muslin,  boots,  and 
gloves,  useful  as  they  are  in  their  way,  are  fail¬ 
ures  as  articles  of  diet.  He  who  takes  these 
inedible  things  and  by  disposing  of  them  into  a 
common  medium  returns  that  to  the  producers 
thereof  for  which  they  in  turn  can  purchase 
what  they  can  consume,  is  no  less  an  important 
cogwheel  in  the  machinery  of  society  than  the 
railroad  or  the  canal,  which  takes  the  wheat  or 
the  cotton,  the  coal  or  the  iron  ore,  from  regions 
where  it  cannot  be  worked  up  into  shape,  and 
places  them  there  where  the  manufactory  or  the 
consumer  awaits  them.  Censure  for  being  a 


214 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


middleman  is  censure  which  must  fall  equally 
upon  the  vast  guild  of  merhants,  all  over  the 
world,  of  every  species,  race,  creed,  and  degree. 

“But  how  about  the  statement,  so  often  made, 
that  the  Jew  is  never  seen  to  work  hard?  We 
do  not,  it  is  true,  see  a  Jew  among  the  swarthy, 
able-bodied,  but  decidedly  unpleasant  gangs  of 
workmen — laborers  they  are  called — who  sweep 
the  streets,  blast  the  rocks  or  dig  and  cart  the 
dirt  for  cellars  and  basements.  This  simply, 
because  their  brains  befit  them  for  occupations 
not  quite  at  the  lowest  round  of  the  labor-lad¬ 
der.  What  American  or  Celt  or  German,  having 
the  ability  to  square  a  post,  saw  an  angle  or 
frame  a  joint  true  and  solid,  will  be  content  to 
be  anything  else  than  a  carpenter,  earning  his 
four  dollars  a  day,  where  the  cellar-digger  earns 
two  dollars?  Or  if  able  to  use  the  plumb-line 
and  get  his  bricks  nicely  and  truly  laid,  would 
you  expect  the  Irish  bricklayer  to  change  places 
and  wages  with  him  who  has  just  enough  ability 
to  mount  a  ladder  with  sixteen  bricks  in  his 
hod,  without  spilling  and  breaking  more  than  a 
dozen  a  day?  Then  why  is  the  Jew  who  has 
the  ability  to  take  positions  for  which  the  world 
is  willing  to  pay  at  the  highest  rate  which  in¬ 
telligence  and  skill  command,  to  be  scored,  be¬ 
cause  he  sells  his  services  in  the  market  where 
the  highest  prices  are  paid?” 


THE  JEW  IN  FINANCE. 


215 


SHYLOCK  NOT  A  JEW. 

Shylock,  the  Jew,  is  undoubtedly  one  of 
Shakespeare’s  most  masterly  dramatic  crea¬ 
tions.  The  fancy  portrait  of  the  Venetian  Jew, 
which  has  cast  upon  the  Jewish  race,  a  foul 
and  enduring  slander,  in  his  inhuman  desire  to 
wreak  upon  his  implacable  enemy,  his  “lodged 
hate,”  by  cutting  from  his  body  a  pound  of  flesh 
in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  the  bond,  has 
no  warrant  in  reality  and  no  sanction  in  Jewish 
laws,  which  strictly  enjoin  the  practice  of  for¬ 
bearance,  mercy  and  charity  in  their  widest  sense 
to  all  men.  Jews  were  little  if  at  all  known  in 
England  for  about  three  hundred  years  when  the 
Merchant  of  Venice  was  written.  Many  slan¬ 
derous  stories  relating  to  the  Jews  who  had 
been  banished  from  the  country  in  1290,  were 
undoubtedly  extant  in  Shakespeare’s  time, 
stories  which  grow  by  telling,  as  a  snowball  does 
by  rolling,  and  which  prepared  playgoers  to  be¬ 
lieve  Jews  capable  of  violating  all  at  once  every 
commandment  in  the  Sacred  Ten.  Thus  the 
character  of  Shylock  was  at  once  welcomed  as 
a  true  representation  of  that  “mysterious  peo¬ 
ple,”  whom  they  had  been  taught  to  hate. 

Where  did  Shakespeare  get  his  plot  for  this 
drama?  The  first  story  of  the  pound  of  flesh 


216 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


we  find  in  ancient  Hindoo  mythology.  Thence 
it  must  have  traveled  westward  and  with  the 
hatred  borne  toward  the  Jew,  was  brought  into 
connection  with  his  relations  to  the  Christian. 
Many  thoughtless  persons  are  in  the  habit  of 
making  foolish  wagers,  as  “I  would  bet  my 
life,”  and  so  on,  and  it  appears  to  have  been  an 
ancient  custom  in  Italy  to  use  the  expression 
“Scometto  una  libra  di  care  del  mio  corpo;”  “1 
wager  you  a  pound  of  flesh  from  my  body,” 
with  no  intention  of  literally  forfeiting  a  pound 
of  flesh.  The  following  and  only  historical 
foundation  of  the  pound  of  flesh  reverses  the 
position  of  the  Jew  and  Christian. 

In  his  life  of  Pope  Sixtus  V.,  Gregorio  Letti, 
the  biographer,  records  the  following  episode: 
In  1587,  Paul  Mario  Secchi,  a  merchant  of  Rome, 
gained  the  information  that  Sir  Francis  Drake, 
the  English  admiral,  had  conquered  San  Domin¬ 
go.  He  communicated  this  piece  of  news  to 
Samson  Cenado,  a  Jewish  merchant,  to  whom  it 
appeared  incredible,  and  he  said:  “I  bet  a 
pound  of  flesh  that  it  is  untrue.” 

“And  I  lay  one  thousand  scudi  against  it,” 
replied  Secchi.  A  bond  was  drawn  up  to  that 
effect.  After  a  few  days,  news  arrived  of 
Drake’s  achievement,  and  the  Christian  insisted 
on  the  fulfillment  of  the  bond.  In  vain  the  Jew 


THE  JEW  IN  FINANCE. 


217 


pleaded,  but  Secchi  swore  that  nothing  could 
satisfy  him  but  a  pound  of  the  Jew’s  flesh.  In 
his  extremity  the  Jew  went  to  the  governor. 
The  governor  of  the  city  promised  his  assist¬ 
ance,  communicated  the  case  to  Pope  Sixtus  V., 
who  condemned  both  to  the  galleys — the  Jew 
for  making  such  a  wager,  the  Christian  for  ac¬ 
cepting  it.  They  released  themselves  from  im¬ 
prisonment  by  each  paying  a  fine  of  two  thou¬ 
sand  scudi  toward  the  hospital  of  the  Sixtus 
Bridge,  which  the  Pope  was  then  rebuilding. 

William  Cullen  Bryant  on  the  occasion  of 
Edwin  Booth’s  presentation  of  Shy  lock,  wrote : 

“In  terming  Shylock  ‘the  Jew  whom  Shakes¬ 
peare  drew,’  there  is  a  perfect  logic,  for  Shy- 
lock  is,  of  all  Shakespeare’s  characters,  the 
only  one  untrue  to  nature.  He  is  not  a  Jew, 
but  a  fiend  presented  in  the  form  of  one;  and 
whereas  he  is  made  a  ruling  type,  he  is  but  an 
exception,  if  even  that,  and  the  exception  is  not 
to  be  met  with  either  in  the  Ghettos  of  Venice 
or  Rome.  Shakespeare  holds  up  the  love  of 
money  that  marks  the  race,  although  he  does 
not  show  that  this  passion  was  but  the  effect  of 
that  persecution  which,  by  crowding  the  Jew 
out  of  every  honorable  pursuit,  and  thus  cutting 
off'  his  nature  from  every  sympathy  with  the 
world  around,  sharpened  and  edged  the  keen 


218  JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 

corners  of  his  brain  for  the  only  pursuit  left  to 
him. 

“It  is  true  that  money-changers,  once  spat  on 
in  the  Ghetto,  are  now  hugged  in  the  palace. 
But  we  fear  it  is  not  that  the  prejudice  against 
the  Jews  has  ceased,  but  that  the  love  of  money 
among  the  Christians  has  increased.  Shakes¬ 
peare  was  not  true  in  the  picture  he  has  drawn 
of  the  Jew’s  cravings  for  revenge,  and  in  the 
contempt  with  which  he  is  treated  by  his  daugh¬ 
ter.  Revenge  is  not  a  characteristic  of  the  Jew. 
He  is  subject  to  sudden  fits  of  passion,  but  that 
intellect  which  always  stands  sentinel  over  the 
Hebrew  soon  subdues  the  gust.  However 
strong  in  Shylock’s  time  might  have  been  the 
hatred  of  the  Jew  toward  the  Christian,  the  lust 
of  lucre  was  more  strong,  and  Shakespeare 
might  have  ransacked  every  Ghetto  in  Christen¬ 
dom  without  finding  a  Jew,  or  a  Christian 
either,  who  would  have  preferred  a  pound  of 
flesh  to  a  pound  sterling,  and  Jews  also  shrink 
from  physical  contests.  Their  disposition  is  to 
triumph  by  intellect  rather  than  violence.  It 
was  this  trait  more  than  any  other  that  ren¬ 
dered  them,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  so  repulsive 
to  the  masses,  who  were  all  of  the  Morrissey 
and  muscular  Christianity  school.  The  con¬ 
tempt  of  a  daughter  for  her  parent  is  equally 


THE  JEW  IN  FINANCE.  219 

uncharacteristic  of  the  Jew.  The  Jews  are  uni¬ 
versally  admired  for  the  affections  which  adorn 
their  domestic  life.  The  more  they  have  been 
pushed  from  the  society  of  the  family  of  man 
the  greater  has  been  the  intensity  with  which 
they  have  clung  to  the  love  of  their  family. 

“No  one  can  ever  have  visited  the  houses  of 
the  Jews  without  having  been  struck  by  the 
glowing  affection  with  which  the  daughter 
greets  the  father  as  he  returns  from  the  day’s 
campaign  and  the  slights  and  sneers  his  gaber¬ 
dine  and  yellow  cap  provoke,  and  without  ob¬ 
serving  how  those  small,  restless  eyes  that 
sparkle  and  gleam,  shine  out  in  a  softened,  lov¬ 
ing  luster  as  they  fall  upon  the  face  of  Rebecca 
or  Jessica,  or  Sarah,  and  how  he  stands  no 
longer  with  crooked  back,  but  erect  and  com¬ 
manding,  as  he  blesses  his  household  goods 
with  exultations  vehement  as  the  prejudices 
which  during  the  day  have  galled  and  fretted 
his  nature.  To  do  justice  to  the  grandeurs  of 
the  Jewish  race,  and  to  brand  with  infamy  its 
infirmities,  it  is  not  enough  to  produce  a  repul¬ 
sive  delineation  of  the  latter.  It  would  be  only 
just  to  give  an  expression  to  the  former,  and  to 
exhibit  that  superiority  of  intellect  which  has 
survived  all  persecution,  and  which,  soaring 
above  prejudices  of  the  hour,  has  filled  us  with 


220 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


reluctant  admiration  on  finding  how  many  of 
the  great  events  which  mark  the  progress  of  the 
age  or  minister  to  its  improvements,  or  elevate 
its  tastes,  may  be  traced  to  the  wonderful  work¬ 
ings  of  the  soul  of  the  Hebrew,  and  the  suprem¬ 
acy  of  that  spiritual  nature  which  gave  man¬ 
kind  its  noblest  religion,  its  noblest  laws,  and 
some  of  its  noblest  poesy  and  music.” 

With  Kobert  Benedix,  the  German  critic: 

‘‘Let  us  look  at  this  Shylock  closer.  Antonio 
calls  him  an  usurer;  the  proof  he  fails  in.  Shy- 
lock  takes  high  interest;  so  did  all  the  mer¬ 
chants  of  Venice.  Shylock  deals  in  money; 
to-day  we  call  him  a  banker.  Why  does  he 
deal  in  money?  Because  it  is  the  only  trade 
permitted.  He  does  not  carry  on  an  industry, 
has  no  agricultural  pursuits,  no  official  station 
— only  trade.  If  the  Jews,  under  centuries  of 
restriction,  ostracised  from  social  life,  did  cling 
to  money  and  its  uses,  whose  fault  was  it?  No 
one  can  say  anything  dishonorable  of  Shylock. 
He  is  penurious ;  in  no  law  book  of  the  world  is 
that  dominated  as  a  crime.  What  is  against 
this  man?  Simply  nothing  more  than  that  he 
is  a  Jew.  But  for  the  poet,  who,  enthroned  on 
Olympian  height,  there  should  only  exist  the 
man,  not  the  Jew.  Shylock  is  revengeful. 
Well  who  has  instigated  it?  Only  they  who 


THE  JEW  IN  FINANCE.  221 

have  despised  him.  After  persecuting  and  de¬ 
riding  him,  they  crown  their  infamy  by  asking 
him  to  turn  Christian.  That  is  the  very  depth 
of  baseness.  What  is  left  the  poor  Jew,  whom 
you  have  trodden  under  foot,  when  you  rob  him 
of  his  faith?  It  is  the  bond  that  binds  him  to 
his  fathers,  to  his  home.  It  has  been  his  solace 
in  persecutions  a  thousand  times  repeated.  To 
this  faith  Israel  clings  with  devoted  love,  and 
from  this  faith  shall  Shylock  turn  to  become  a 
Christian?  No  wonder  he  turns  with  abhor¬ 
rence  from  those  who  torture  him  so  cruelly. 
Christians  they  may  be.  Men  they  are  not. 
And  is  there  no  feeling  for  a  father?  To  exalt 
a  daughter  who  absconds  and  robs  him  whom 
she  should  honor?  Is  that  Jewish  or  Christian? 
The  grand  speech,  ‘Has  not  a  Jew  eyes,’  etc., 
is  the  exclamation  of  a  martyr  people  who  for 
centuries  had  been  the  victims  of  debauched, 
bigoted  priests. 

“It  is  impossible  to  acquit  Shakespeare  of  the 
prejudice  of  his  age.  He  has  morally  sinned ; 
artistically  erred.  Contrast  Lessing,  he  who 
wrote  in  an  age  of  equal  intolerance.  His 
‘Nathan  the  Wise’ is  an  embodiment  of  morality 
and  sublime  virtues ;  his  figures  are  apostles  of 
true  humanity.  Nathan  is  an  evangelist  of  true 
worth;  and  Lessing,  taking  for  his  hero  a  Jew, 


222 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


made  thereby  the  amende  honorable  in  the  name 
of  humanity.” 

Terence  V.  Powderly,  long  the  great  leader 
of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  wrote: 

“Flings  at  the  Jews  are  flying  about  promis¬ 
cuously  on  every  hand,  and  it  seems  to  me  that 
this  practice  is  neither  just  nor  manly.  Turn 
the  pages  of  history  backward  to  the  dawn  of 
Christianity  and  notice  how  the  Jew  has  been 
persecuted  by  those  who  professed  to  be  actu¬ 
ated  by  Christian  charity.  Notice  how  he  has 
been  driven  from  country  and  home,  how  he 
has  been  driven  ahead  of  the  advanced  guard  of 
Christianity,  and  then  pause  for  a  moment  to 
ask  if  the  Christian  is  not  in  some  small  meas¬ 
ure  to  blame  for  the  money-lending  character¬ 
istics  of  the  Jew  of  this  day  and  generation. 
Driven  from  all  other  branches  of  trade,  with  a 
price  on  his  head,  and  his  home  at  the  mercy  of 
others,  how  could  the  Jew  protect  himself?  It 
is  well  enough  to.  single  out  Rothschild  and  to 
point  to  him  as  a  fit  representative  of  an  usury - 
taking  class,  but  when  he  is  pointed  to  as  ‘Roths¬ 
child  the  Jew,’  the  bounds  of  propriety  are 
overstepped  and  common  justice  is  violated. 

“What  right  has  a  Christian  to  drive  a  man 
from  every  walk  in  life  but  that  of  money-lend¬ 
ing  and  then  insult  his  race  and  religion  be- 


THE  JEW  IN  FINANCE. 


223 


cause  of  that  fact,  in  sneeringly  calling  him  a 
Jew.  It  is  proper  to  call  a  money-lender  a 
‘Sliy lock,’  for  that  is  a  term  that  is  applicable 
to  men  of  all  races  and  religions  if  they  practice 
usury,  but  to  single  out  the  Jew  as  the  only  one 
who  should  wear  that  appellation  is  an  outrage. 
I  know  Christians,  and  the  reader  knows  them, 
who  on  every  Sunday  morning  will  walk  slowly 
down  the  middle  aisle  in  the  Christian  church, 
and  with  sanctimonious  mien  bend  the  knee  be¬ 
fore  the  altar  of  God  with  no  more  Christianity 
in  their  hearts  than  may  be  found  in  the  stone - 
steps  leading  up  to  the  church  door.  If  a  living 
representative  of  ‘Shylock’  is  to  be  singled  out, 
one  whose  talon-like  lingers  itch  for  usury  and 
stretch  out  toward  your  pocket  for  the  principal 
as  well,  let  us  be  honest  enough  to  admit  that 
we  can  throw  a  stone  into  any  of  our  temples  of 
Christianity  and  hit  a  sinner.  Do  not  lay  it  to 
the  Jew.  I  admit  that  he  knows  how  to  deal  in 
money,  but  who  gave  him  points  in  the  game  of 
usury?  Look  over  the  United  States  to-day. 
Contrast  the  acts  of  pretended  Christians  with 
the  principles  of  Christ,  and  then  dare  to  lay 
the  blame  of  all  the  wrong  that  usury  has 
wrought  to  the  door  of  the  Jew.  Look  at  our 
American  Congress  and  tell  us  if  those  who 
obey  the  voice  of  greed  in  that  body  are  all 


2  24 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


Jews.  .  .  .  Are  all  who  have  cornered 

lands,  railroads  and  homes  Jews?  Let  the 
reader  whose  home  is  mortgaged  inquire 
who  it  is  holds  the  mortgage,  and  if  it  happens 
to  be  a  Christian,  as  nine  cases  out  of  ten  he 
will  be,  ask  him  to  be  lenient  with  you,  and  you 
will  learn  that  he  wants  his  pound  of  flesh  and 
will  be  anxious  to  go  old  Shylock  one  better,  by 
sucking  the  blood  along  with  it.” 

USUEY  NOT  A  JEWISH  CHAEACTEEISTIC. 

Usury  has  been  a  common  practice  among 
every  nation  as  far  back  as  history  bears  record. 
The  discoveries  of  Egyptian  papyri  made  some 
years  ago  at  Thebes  have  disclosed  the  fact  that 
the  Egyptian  priests,  chiefly  the  priests  of 
Osiris,  were  engaged  in  lending  and  borrowing 
money,  and  that  they  practiced  usury  in  its 
severest  form — fifty  per  cent,  being  the  usual 
amount  charged,  and  security  debtors  were 
sometimes  obliged  to  mortgage  all  they  pos¬ 
sessed.  The  loans  were  invariably  contracted 
for  short  periods,  payment  was  punctually  en¬ 
forced,  a  creditor  would  accept  no  instalment 
before  the  day  fixed  for  repayment,  nor  would 
the  priests  and  scribes  permit  even  the  delay 
of  a  few  hours. 

Among  the  ancient  Greeks  we  find  usury  in 


THE  JEW  IN  FINANCE. 


225 


its  most  infamous  aspect,  as  the  following  cita¬ 
tions  from  Mitford’s “History  of  Greece”  show: 
“Everywhere  the  laws  gave  the  lender  certain 
rights  over  the  person  of  the  borrower.  Thus 
the  wealthy  to  the  power  always  attending 
poverty  added  a  power  not  originally  intended 
by  the  constitution,  yet  derived  from  the  laws, 
and  confirmed  by  them.  At  Athens  an  insolent 
debtor  became  a  slave  to  his  creditor,  and  not 
himself  only,  but  his  wife  and  children  also,  if 
less  would  not  answer  the  debt.  Sometimes  a 
debtor  would  sell  his  children  to  save  himself.” 
So  universally  and  cruelly  was  usury  practiced 
among  the  ancient  Eomans  that  a  law  was 
passed  to  mitigate  its  severity.  According  to 
Livy,  Roman  usurers  were  restrained  by  new 
laws  from  keeping  their  debtors  in  irons  or  in 
bounds,  only  goods  and  not  the  persons  of 
debtors  could  be  given  up  to  creditors.  Cato, 
Seneca  and  Plutarch  in  their  unsparing  denun¬ 
ciations  of  unreasonable  demands  for  interest 
on  money,  give  undeniable  proof  of  the  shame¬ 
less  prevalence  of  usury  among  the  nations  of 
antiquity. 

Of  the  usury  practiced  throughout  the  Middle 
Ages  Hallam  tells  us  that  “at  Verona  it  was 
fixed  by  law  in  1228  at  twelve  and  one-half  per 
cent.  In  1270,  at  Modena,  it  appears  to  have 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


226 

been  as  high  as  twenty  per  cent.  The  Republic 
of  Genoa,  toward  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  cen¬ 
tury,  when  Italy  had  grown  wealthy,  paid  only 
from  seven  to  ten  per  cent,  to  her  creditors. 
But  in  France  and  England  the  rate  was  far 
more  oppressive.  An  ordinance  of  Philip  the 
Fair,  in  1311,  allowed  twenty  per  cent,  after  the 
first  year  of  loan.  Under  Henry  III.  of  Eng¬ 
land,  according  to  Matthew  Paris,  the  debtor 
paid  ten  per  cent,  every  two  months;  but  this 
as  a  practice  is  supposed  to  be  absolutely 
incredible. 

Usury  was  practiced  by  some  Jews,  but  it  is 
not  a  Jewish  any  more  than  it  is  a  Christian 
characteristic.  Usurious  Jews  there  were  dur¬ 
ing  the  Middle  Ages,  the  greater  part  of  the 
wealth,  as  well  as  the  ordinary  inland  trade 
throughout  Italy,  France,  Spain,  Greece  and 
Portugal  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Jewish  people. 
It  is  not  surprising  that  Jews  should  have 
availed  themselves  of  favorable  opportunities  to 
add  to  their  store,  by  claiming  as  did  their 
Christian  neighbors  those  high  rates  of  interest 
for  the  loan  of  money  to  which  historians  refer, 
and  more  especially  since  to  cultivate  the  soil, 
to  practice  any  art,  even  to  trade,  or  hold  real 
estate  was  forbidden  them  in  many  countries, 
and  their  wealth  was  in  ready  money,  and  held 


THE  JEW  IN  FINANCE. 


227 


under  the  precarious  conditions  dependent  upon 
the  caprice  of  tyranical  rulers.  That  Jewish 
usurers  were  not  as  grinding  as  their  Christian 
neighbors  who  pursued  the  same  occupation  is 
plainly  evident  from  the  historical  fact  that 
when  by  law  it  was  forbidden  the  Jews  in  France 
to  exact  usury,  that  the  law  was  soon  repealed 
in  response  to  the  people’s  demand  and  the 
nobles’  advice,  because  the  Christian  usurers  to 
whom  they  had  then  to  resort  were  so  exorbi¬ 
tant  in  their  demands  that  the  Jews  were  con¬ 
sidered  very  kind  by  comparison.  Leckey  tells 
us  that  at  this  time  all  drawing  of  interest  on 
capital  lent  was  called  usury.  Bernhard  of 
Clairvaux,  in  the  twelfth  century,  tells  us  that 
Christian  usurers,  who,  as  he  says  should  really 
not  be  called  Christians,  were  in  their  practices 
much  worse  than  the  Jews. 

The  poets  in  their  songs  and  the  preachers  in 
their  sermons  refer  to  this  terrible  vice  as 
common  among  Christians  during  the  Middle 
Ages. 

Why  then  should  the  Jews  be  singled  out  and 
painted  as  cruel,  hard-hearted,  revengeful  mon¬ 
sters  for  the  same  avaricious  practices  in  which 
their  Christian  brethren  at  least  equalled  them 
if  they  did  not  go  them  a  few  points  worse. 
Is  it  religious  bigotry  and  race  hatred  that 


2*28  JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 

makes  the  distinction  which  history  certainly 
fails  to  make? 

The  Jews  of  the  Middle  Ages  who  were  the 
sole  possessors  of  the  wealth  as  they  were  also 
of  learning,  were  always,  by  the  exigencies  of 
the  savage  and  rapacious  princes,  subjected  to 
frightful  extortions.  In  1210  the  detestable 
King  John  withdrew  the  privileges  accorded  the 
Jews  to  induce  them  to  settle  in  England,  and 
imprisoned  all  the  Jews  and  their  families  who 
did  not  heed  his  command  to  pay  all  their 
money  into  his  exchequer. 

In  the  year  1241,  and  in  1243,  the  Christian 
authorities  again  forced  the  Jews  to  submit  to 
extravagant  extortions.  These  extortions  were 
repeated  in  1250,  and  once  more  in  1255.  When 
the  rapacious  Henry  III.  went  so  far  as  to 
demand  the  money  of  the  Jews — with  the 
alternative  of  their  being  all  hanged,  they  peti¬ 
tioned  the  brutal  monarch  to  allow  them  to 
depart,  but  the  bankrupt  king  bade  them  stay, 
and  as  he  needed  money  to  supply  his  son 
Prince  Edward,  he  forced  the  Jews  to  remain  and 
robbed  them  as  his  financial  exigencies  required. 

Interest  had  now  reached  to  a  great  height. 
Hume  cites  instances  of  fifty  per  cent,  being 
paid.  Money-lenders  were  permitted  legally  to 
accept  as  high  as  forty-eight  per  cent,  on  loans. 


THE  JEW  IN  FINANCE. 


229 


Little  need  we  wonder,  when  we  remember  how 
strong  the  love  of  gain  reigns  in  our  own  hearts, 
that  the  Jews  braved  the  prejudice  like  others 
of  the  age,  and  remained  in  England  to  benefit 
by  the  high  profits  which  were  then  given  for 
the  use  of  money. 

When  in  1290  King  Edward  could  extort  no 
more  gold  from  them  he  banished  them  from 
England.  The  practice  of  usury,  Hume  tells  us, 
“was  thenceforth  exercised  by  the  English 
themselves,  upon  their  fellow-citizens,  or  by  the 
Lombards  (not  Jews),  as  it  was  impossible  for  a 
nation  to  subsist  without  lenders  of  money, 
and  none  would  lend  without  compensation." 

“It  is  very  much  to  be  questioned  whether 
the  dealings  of  the  new  usurers  were  equally 
open  and  unexceptionable  with  those  of  the  old.” 
Usury  in  those  times  was  not  peculiar  to  the 
Jews.  Dr.  Tovey  says  ( Anglia  Judaica ): 

“The  Pope  was  wont  to  carry  on  that  infa¬ 
mous  trade  in  such  a  shameful  manner,  by  the 
help  of  several  Italian  merchants  called  Caur- 
sini,  that  the  Jews  themselves  might  have 
profited  by  his  example.  For  though,  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  strict  and  legal  acceptation  of  the 
word,  his  contracts  were  not  ‘usurious,’  yet  the 
effects  of  them  were  the  most  unheard  of  usury. 
His  method  was  this :  if  a  person  wanted  a  sum 


230 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


of  money  which  he  would  not  repay  under  six 
months,  he  would  lend  it  to  him  for  three 
months  without  any  interest  at  all;  and  then 
covenant  to  receive  five  per  cent,  for  every 
month  afterward  that  it  should  remain  unpaid. 
‘Now  in  this  case,’  said  he,  ‘I  am  no  usurer,  for 
I  lent  my  money  absolutely  without  interest, 
and  what  I  was  to  receive  afterward  was  a  con¬ 
tingency  that  might  be  defeated.’  A  bond  of 
this  kind,  which  surpasses  everything  of  mod¬ 
ern  invention,  is  transmitted  by  Matthew  Paris, 
who  says,  “when  the  Jews  came  to  understand 
the  Christian  way  of  preventing  usury  they 
laughed  very  heartily.” 

The  royal  spendthrifts  and  their  impecunious 
subjects  borrowed  from  the  industrious  and 
provident  Jews.  But  when  the  time  came  to 
pay  they  raised  the  cry  against  “the  crime  of 
usury,”  and  the  indolent  Christian  borrowers, 
the  Castilian  nobles  (?)  plundered  and  murdered 
the  Jewish  money-lenders  and  thus  avenged  the 
crime  of  usury  and  cancelled  their  debts. 

The  most  infamously  notorious  usurers  of 
which  history  tells  were  the  Lombards,  Aud- 
ley,  Pepoli  and  the  Caursini,  not  Jews.  Writing 
in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  Bacon  says  of  usury: 
“Since  there  must  be  borrowing  and  lending, 
and  men  are  so  hard  of  heart  that  they  will  not 


THE  JEW  IN  FINANCE. 


231 


lend  freely,  usury  must  be  permitted.  Only  a 
Utopian  government  would  attempt  to  suppress 
usury.”  Usury  could  only  be  practiced  by 
Christians,  as  Jews  were  not  then  tolerated  in 
England. 


The  Jew  in  the  Pulpit. 


Whilst  no  people  can  claim  an  unmixed  purity  of  blood,  cer¬ 
tainly  none  can  establish  such  antiquity  of  origin,  such  unbroken 
generations  of  descent  as  the  Hebrews.  That  splendid  passage  of 
Macaulay  so  often  quoted,  in  reference  to  the  Roman  Pontiffs, 
loses  its  force  in  sight  of  Hebrew  history.  “  No  other  institu¬ 
tion,”  says  he,  “is  left  standing  which  carries  the  mind  back  to 
the  times  when  the  smoke  of  sacrifice  rose  from  the  Pantheon, 
and  when  camels,  leopards,  and  tigers  bounded  in  the  Iberian 
amphitheatre.  The  proudest  royal  houses  are  but  of  yesterday 
as  compared  with  the  line  of  the  supreme  pontiffs ;  that  line  we 
trace  back  in  unbroken  lines  from  the  Pope  who  crowned  Napo¬ 
leon  in  the  nineteenth  century  to  the  Pope  who  crowned  Pepin 
in  the  eighth,  and  far  beyond  Pepin,  the  august  dynasty  extends 
until  it  is  lost  in  the  twilight  of  fable.  The  Republic  of  Venice 
came  next  in  antiquity,  but  the  Republic  of  Venice  is  modern 
compared  with  the  Papacy,  and  the  Republic  of  Venice  is  gone 
and  the  Papacy  remains.  The  Catholic  Church  was  great  and 
respected  before  the  Saxon  had  set  foot  on  Britain,  before  the 
Frank  had  passed  the  Rhine,  when  Grecian  eloquence  still 
flourished  at  Antioch,  when  idols  were  still  worshipped  in  the 
Temple  of  Mecca;  and  she  may  still  exist  in  undiminished  vigor 
when  some  traveler  from  New  Zealand  in  the  midst  of  a  vast 
solitude  shall  take  his  stand  on  a  broken  arch  of  London  Bridge 
to  sketch  the  ruins  of  St.  Paul.”  This  is  justly  esteemed  one  of 
the  most  eloquent  passages  in  our  literature,  but  I  submit  it  is 
not  history. 

The  Jewish  people,  church  and  institutions  are  still  left  stand¬ 
ing,  though  the  stones  of  the  temple  remain  no  longer  one  upon 
the  other,  though  its  sacrificial  fires  are  forever  extinguished; 
and  though  the  tribes,  whose  glory  it  was,  wander  with  weary 
feet  throughout  the  earth.  And  what  is  the  line  of  Roman  Pon¬ 
tiffs  compared  to  that  splendid  dynasty  of  the  successors  of  Aaron 
and  Levi?  “The  twilight  of  fable,”  in  which  the  line  of  Pontiffs 
began,  was  but  the  noonday  brightness  of  the  Jewish  priesthood. 
Their  institution  carries  the  mind  back  to  the  age  when  the 
prophet,  in  rapt  mood,  stood  over  Babylon  and  uttered  God’s 
wrath  against  that  grand  and  wondrous  mistress  of  the  Euphra- 
tean  plains — when  the  Memphian  chivalry  still  gave  precedence 
to  the  chariots  and  horsemen  who  each  morning  poured  forth 
from  the  brazen  gates  of  the  abode  of  Ammon;  when  Tyre  and 
Sidon  were,  yet  building  their  palaces  by  the  sea,  and  Carthage, 
their  greatest  daughter,  was  yet  unborn.  That  dynasty  of  pro¬ 
phetic  priests  existed  even  before  Clio’s  pen  had  learned  to  record 
the  deeds  of  men ;  and  when  that  splendid,  entombed  civilization 
once  lighted  the  shores  of  the  Eurythrgean  Sea,  the  banks  of  the 
Euphrates  and  the  plains  of  Shinar,  with  a  glory  inconceivable, 
of  which  there  is  naught  now  to  tell,  except  the  dumb  eloquence 
of  ruined  temples  and  buried  cities. — Zebulon  B.  Vance. 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  PULPIT. 


235 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  JEW  IN  THE  PULPIT. 

Until  within  comparatively  recent  times  the 
Jews  of  the  United  States  received  their  clergy 
from  abroad.  The  first  attempt  worthy  of 
note  to  preach  in  English  was  made  by  Rev. 
Isaac  Leeser  in  Philadelphia  on  June,  2,  1830. 
The  best  way  to  gauge  the  merit  of  Jewish 
preachers,  and  learn  what  American  Judaism 
has  to  say  concerning  vital  questions,  is  to  pre¬ 
sent  abstracts  from  sermons  preached  in  the 
American  Jewish  pulpit.  The  selections  from 
the  sermons  of  the  following  rabbis  will  give  the 
reader  a  clear  idea  of  the  spirit  of  modern  Juda¬ 
ism,  showing  conclusively  that  the  fire  of  the 
old  prophets  still  burns  in  the  preachers  who 
stand  to-day  in  the  synagogues  of  the  new 
world.  We  have  carefully  read  scores  of  ser¬ 
mons  preached  by  rabbis  in  different  parts  of 
our  country,  and  these  sermons  preached  to 
Jewish  congregations  and  printed  for  Jewish 
readers,  bear  abundant  testimony  that  unselfish, 


236  JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 

decided,  enthusiastic,  devoted  men,  fill  the  Jew¬ 
ish  pulpits.  Our  only  regret  is,  that  we  must 
for  want  of  space,  pass  by  so  many  other  dis¬ 
tinguished  preachers.  Rabbi  Schreiber,  in  a 
sermon  to  his  own  people,  said: 

“Unselfish  men  do  we  need  in  the  pulpit,  who 
never  ask  whether  truth,  half-truth  or  false¬ 
hood,  will  best  advance  their  interests;  who  do 
not  cringe  before  the  powerful,  who  do  not 
cater  to  every  fad  of  the  day  and  do  not  change 
their  views  with  every  turn  of  the  tide.  Men 
of  decision  do  we  need  who,  like  the  old  proph¬ 
ets,  possess  the  boldness  and  courage  to 
teach  a  living,  broad,  all-embracing  Judaism, 
based  on  the  principles  of  service,  sacrifice, 
righteousness,  freedom,  justice  and  truth.  Men 
do  we  need  who  do  not  sell  their  convictions  for 
a  mess  of  pottage,  who  would  rather  be  right 
than  popular,  who  lead  and  are  not  led  and  who 
dare  to  ignore  the  applause  or  the  ridicule  of 
ignorant  or  unprincipled  critics.  Men  do  we 
need  who  amid  the  ravages  of  ambition,  the 
mean  aims  of  egotism  and  under  the  burdens  of 
great  trials  and  tribulations  spurn  the  fairest 
gifts  of  fortune  in  the  pursuit  of  duty  and  the 
vindication  of  the  cause  of  humanity.  Men  do 
we  need  who  in  this  age  of  materialism  dare  to 
believe  that  purity  of  motive  is  not  a  dream  of 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  PULPIT.  237 

fancy,  but  that  it  is  placed  within  our  reach  and 
is  the  very  end  of  our  being.  Such  men  and 
such  men  only,  will  make  our  pulpit  an  attrac¬ 
tive  source  of  centralization  and  a  power  of 
spiritual  elevation.  They  will  contribute  to¬ 
ward  the  spread  of  Jewish  ideas  and  hasten  the 
Messianic  time,  when  “righteousness  will  flow 
like  water  and  justice  like  a  mighty  stream.” 

WHO  AEE  THE  REAL  ATHEISTS? 

Rev.  Dr.  Adolph  Moses,  answers: 

“They  whose  conduct  belies  their  belief  in 
the  existence  of  God,  whose  life  forms  a  glaring 
contrast  to  the  idea  of  God.  The  belief  in  a 
God  is  not  simply  the  highest  and  most  certain 
of  all  truths,  it  is  also  the  greatest  and  most 
potent  moral  idea.  The  idea  of  God  implies  the 
idea  of  divine  perfection  and  absolute  goodness. 
God  and  goodness  are  synonymous,  interchange¬ 
able  terms.  If  we  believed  that  God  was  not 
goodness,  we  might  fear  Him,  but  we  could  not 
adore  Him.  A  good  man  would  appear  to  us 
more  worshipful  than  He.  Religion  and  philos¬ 
ophy  agree  in  holding  that  morality  is  the 
highest  manifestation  of  the  infinite  in  and 
through  the  soul  of  man. 

“Whatever  we  may  think  of  its  origin  and  de¬ 
velopment,  as  it  is,  it  doubtless  is  the  most  glori- 


238 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


ous  incarnation  of  the  inscrutable  power,  of  the 
Univeral  Self.  To  believe  in  God  does  not 
mean  that  we  simply  allow  that  He  exists,  it 
means  that  we  strive  to  walk  in  the  luminous 
footsteps  of  His  holiness,  to  walk  in  the  ways  of 
His  justice,  truth  and  mercy.  Every  virtuous 
action  is  a  true  act  of  worship.  To  curb  our 
passions  in  obedience  to  the  laws  divine  en¬ 
graved  upon  the  tablet  of  our  hearts  is  the 
grandest  homage  paid  to  the  idea  of  God.  To 
smite  and  overthrow  the  vaulting  instincts  of 
selfishness  in  order  to  serve  the  common  good 
of  all,  is  the  strongest  proof  that  a  God  of  good¬ 
ness  inspires  the  breast  of  man.  He  is  an 
atheist  who  professes  to  believe  in  God  but 
whose  deeds  put  his  faith  to  shame.  He  who 
declares  that  he  considers  the  Ten  Command¬ 
ments  a  revelation,  of  God  and  yet  violates  one 
and  all,  he  is  the  real  atheist.  He  who  ac¬ 
knowledges  that  we  should  recognize  no  other 
God  beside  the  Eternal,  and  yet  worships  his 
own  poor  self  as  the  highest  being  and  places  his 
own  interests  and  pleasures  above  the  highest 
interests  and  aims  of  humanity,  he  is  a  real 
atheist.  He  who  perjures  himself,  who  swears 
a  false  oath  or  utters  lies  to  obtain  profit  or  gain 
favor,  he  does  practically  deny  God,  he  demon¬ 
strates  that  he  does  not  believe  in  Him,  “that 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  PULPIT. 


239 


will  not  let  him  go  unpunished  that  taketh  His 
name  in  vain.”  Whoever  fails  to  honor  his 
father  and  mother  as  the  representatives  of  God 
on  earth,  whoever,  in  heartless  selfishness,  neg¬ 
lects  his  aged  parents  and  refuses  to  surround 
their  declining  years  with  blessings  and  com¬ 
forts,  he  is  an  atheist,  though  he  daily  bend  his 
knee  in  adoration  to  Him  and  sound  His  praises 
in  the  midst  of  the  assembly.  He  that  makes 
himself  a  slave  of  Mammon,  who  in  his  greed  to 
amass  wealth,  lets  the  higher  powers  of  his 
mind  and  heart  run  to  waste,  verily  he  is  an 
atheist;  he  does  by  his  conduct  prove  that  he 
does  not  believe  man  to  be  a  child  and  image  of 
the  Most  High,  destined  to  pattern  his  life  upon 
that  of  divine  perfection.  He  that  defrauds  his 
neighbors  in  any  matter  great  or  small,  who 
uses  false  weights  and  false  measures,  is  an 
atheist,  he  does  not  believe  in  a  God  that  hates 
deception  and  injustice.  He  is  an  atheist  that 
deprives  the  toiler  of  his  wages,  and  takes  away 
from  the  needy  the  fruit  of  his  labor.  That 
man  is  indeed  an  atheist  who  robs  the  sub¬ 
stance  of  his  fellow-men  by  violation  of  the  laws 
of  the  land,  or  by  bribing  legislatures  to  enact 
wicked  laws  to  favor  his  inquitous  schemes. 

“Whoever  sacrifices  duty  and  conscience  to 
his  passions  is  a  rank  atheist.  The  priest  at  the 


240 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


altar  is  an  atheist,  the  teacher  of  righteousness 
and  faith,  whose  heart  burns  with  the  unholy 
fire  of  lust.  Though  he  make  many  genuflec¬ 
tions,  and  lift  his  eyes  in  prayer  to  heaven,  he 
does  deny  God  in  his  sinful  soul.  All  those 
were  real  atheists  who  persecuted  their  fellow 
men  on  account  of  their  faith,  who  tortured  and 
murdered  the  children  of  God  in  the  name  of 

God.  Torquemada  and  Arbenas  were  atheists, 

[ 

in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  scourged  their 
bodies  and  sang  many  litanies  in  honor  of  their 
God.  That  ruler  is  an  atheist  and  an  enemy  of 
God  who  grinds  the  faces  of  the  poor  and 
needy,  who  oppresses  men  on  account  of  race 
and  religion,  who  deprives  human  beings  of  the 
right  to  earn  a  livelihood,  who  withholds  from 
them  the  means  of  acquiring  knowledge  and 
leading  the  lives  of  human  beings.  The  Czar 
of  Russia  is  an  atheist,  although  he  is  at  the 
head  of  the  National  Church;  his  wicked  coun¬ 
sellors  deny  God,  because  they  rebel  against 
the  laws  of  divine  justice.  He  is  an  atehist  who 
calls  darkness  light  and  evil  good,  who  praises 
the  despot,  that  drives  mothers  with  their  babes 
out  of  their  homes  in  midwinter,  and  causes 
many  infants  to  die  of  cold  and  starvation. 

'‘The  irreverent  Dr. - ,  is  an  atheist,  though 

Sunday  after  Sunday  he  cuts  capers  in  his  pul- 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  PULPIT. 


241 


pit,  and  calls  himself  the  servant  of  God.  The 
God  of  truth  and  justice  is  not  in  his  heart,  else 
he  could  not  call  a  tyrant  a  benefactor  of  his 
people  who  causes  infinite  woe  and  misery 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  his  land. 
All  those  teachers  of  religion  are  atheists,  the 
Stoeckers  and  the  Bohlings,  who  on  Sundays 
preach  from  their  pulpits,  ‘Love  thy  enemy  as 
thyself,’  but  as  soon  as  they  step  out  of  their 
church,  preach  and  practice  hatred  and  malice, 
spread  calumnies  and  baneful  falsehoods,  and 
excite  in  the  breasts  of  the  masses  vile  and 
bloodthirsty  passions. 

“Whoever  holds  that  a  man  can  be  religious 
without  trying  to  be  absolutely  just,  truthful 
and  merciful  toward  all  men,  denies  and  blas¬ 
phemes  God.  Whoever  treats  his  fellow-men 
with  contempt,  and  deems  them  unworthy  of 
associating  with  him  on  account  of  race  or  re¬ 
ligion,  is  an  atheist,  because  he  practically  de¬ 
nies  that  all  men  are  children  of  one  Heavenly 
Father,  that  loves  them  all  and  whose  majesty 
resides  in  them  all. 

“It  is  on  account  of  such  practical  atheism 
that  the  earth  mourns  and  is  full  of  desolation. 
It  is  on  account  of  such  practical  atheism  that 
the  cries  of  the  depressed  and  downtrodden  are 
heard.  Such  atheism  is  the  parent  of  infinite 


242 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


woe  and  misery.  Such  practical  atheism  has 
drenched  the  earth  with  the  tears  and  the  blood 
of  the  innocent.  Alas,  how  many  are  entirely 
free  from  practical  atheism?  Ministers  and  lay¬ 
men,  men  and  women,  Gentiles  and  Israelites, 
one  way  or  another  deny  God  in  their  conduct. 
Oh,  let  us  not  glory  in  the  religious  doctrines 
we  hold,  let  us  not  boast  of  the  principles  of 
faith  which  we  profess.  By  our  fruits  alone  let 
us  prove  that  we  believe  in  an  all-just,  all-wise, 
and  all-merciful  God.  Let  us  gird  ourselves 
with  strength  and  strive  to  establish  the  king¬ 
dom  of  God,  the  kingdom  of  righteousness  and 
love  on  earth.  Let  us  endeavor  to  make  our 
lives  symbols  of  the  perfection  of  God.” 

THE  WEAKNESSES  OF  BIBLE  HEKOES. 

Rabbi  Edward  N.  Calisch,  defends  the  Bible 
heroes  thus: 

“The  heroes  of  the  Bible  were  heroes  in 
moral  conflict.  Yet  we  find  that  they  all  had 
their  weaknesses.  Noah,  though  called  a  just 
and  righteous  man,  and  one  who  walked  with 
God  (Genesis  ii.  9),  was  guilty  of  sodden-witted 
drunkenness.  Abraham,  the  patriarch  and 
founder  of  our  faith,  the  man  of  perfect  obe¬ 
dience,  of  generous  and  unquestioning  hospital¬ 
ity,  of  justice,  mercy  and  philanthropy,  was 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  PULPIT. 


243 


twice  guilty  of  cowardice  and  the  accomplice  of 
heinous  crime.  The  deception  and  the  strate¬ 
gies  of  Jacob  cannot  be  glossed  over.  Moses, 
Aaron,  and  Miriam,  all  suffered  the  wrath  of 
God  because  of  their  disobedience.  The  weak¬ 
ness  of  the  mighty  Samson  made  him  the  play¬ 
thing  of  Delilah.  Saul  felt,  even  in  his  lifetime, 
the  results  of  his  errors.  David  is,  perhaps,  the 
best  illustration  of  the  truth  which  we  teach. 
He  was  a  man  who  sunk  to  the  lowest  depths 
and  rose  to  the  highest  heights.  The  whole 
gamut  of  human  weakness  and  human  strength 
was  run  by  him.  He  played  on  every  key  in 
the  great  organ  of  the  human  heart,  from  the 
lowest  bass  of  passion  to  the  highest  and  shrill¬ 
est  note  of  spiritual  frenzy.  He  fell,  fell  often 
and  deeply,  but  each  time  he  rose  again. 
Though  Solomon  walked  in  all  the  ways  of  wis¬ 
dom  and  laid  down  many  a  noble  precept  of 
life,  yet  was  not  himself  free  from  sin. 

“To  those  who  oppose,  these  sins  and  weak¬ 
nesses  of  the  Bible  heroes  have  been  made  the 
object  of  much  scorn,  ridicule,  and  contumelious 
attack.  They  will  pick  out  the  flaws  and  weak¬ 
nesses  of  each  one,  and,  dwelling  upon  it  and 
it  alone,  cry  out,  ‘Are  these  the  men  you  hold 
up  as  models?  A  Noah,  guilty  of  drunkenness; 
an  Abraham,  of  cowardly  desertion;  a  Jacob,  of 


244 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


falsehood;  a  David,  of  murder;  a  Solomon  of  a 
hundred  vices?’'’ 

“But  to  the  one  who  reads  rightly  these 
weaknesses  of  the  Bible  heroes  are  their 
strength.  The  Bible  above  all  things,  is  for 
human  guidance,  human  help  and  assistance. 
Its  lessons  are  the  lessons  of  human  life,  and  its 
heroes,  therefore,  are  human.  The  presence  of 
the  faults  and  the  follies  of  its  great  men  is 
doubly  creditable  to  the  writers  of  the  Scrip¬ 
tures.  It  shows  the  absolute  fidelity  and  ac¬ 
curacy  with  which  they  chronicled  events. 
Naught  was  set  down  in  malice,  naught  glossed 
over,  naught  extenuated.  When  a  sin  was 
committed  it  was  not  hidden  or  condoned. 
Often  its  punishment  was  given  by  its  side. 
Noah  is  rebuked  by  the  conduct  of  his  sons. 
Jacob  feels  the  humiliation  of  his  acts,  when, 
twenty  years  later,  he  meets  Esau  again.  Mir¬ 
iam  was  struck  with  leprosy ;  the  great  law¬ 
giver  and  leader  was  not  permitted  to  cross  the 
Jordan.  The  intrepid  Nathan  stood  before  the 
monarch  who  had  sinned,  and  flung  the  re¬ 
proach  into  his  face. 

“By  these  very  things  does  the  Bible  press 
home  to  us  the  lesson  of  our  human  and  our 
Godlike  being.  These  men  were  heroes  and 
leaders.  They  sinned,  yes,  and  by  the  very 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  PULPIT. 


245 


reason  that  they  rose  superior  to  their  sins  are 
they  strong.  The  true  strength  lies  not  in 
never  having  fallen,  but  in  rising  after  one  has 
given  way.  ‘Though  a  righteous  man  fall  seven 
times,  yet  will  he  rise  again.’  Had  the  heroes 
of  the  Bible  been  flawless,  stainless,  immacu¬ 
late,  perfect,  they  would  not  appeal  to  us  as 
they  do.  That  they  were  weak,  we  know  them 
to  be  our  brothers,  fighting  the  same  battles  of 
lust,  passion,  temptation  and  allurement;  that 
they  conquered  their  weaknesses  and  rose  to 
the  sublime  heights  of  moral  truth,  ay,  to  the 
very  summit  and  acme  of  spiritual  life  and  con¬ 
ception,  teaches  us  that  we  too  have  these  God¬ 
like  possibilities  within  us;  we  too  can  and  will 
climb  the  Moriah  of  obedience,  the  Sinai  of  a 
steadfast  loyalty,  the  Nebo  of  sublime  resigna¬ 
tion,  and  by  our  moral  strength  defeat  and  de¬ 
stroy  the  weaknesses  of  our  moral  garment. 

“For  this  reason,  too,  let  us  be  wary  in  stern 
judgment.  The  human  being  is  compassed  by 
too  many  limitations  to  be  perfect.  Perfection 
is  only  of  God.  Indefectibility  can  only  be  of 
that  omniscient  One  whose  power  permeates 
the  worlds,  whose  mercy  is  as  fathomless  as 
His  wisdom.  Striving  to  be,  if  to  an  infinitesi¬ 
mal  degree,  like  Him,  in  purity  of  thought  and 
deed,  let  us,  like  Him,  also  remember  the  weak- 


246 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW, 


ness  of  man,  and  be  generous  in  thought,  kindly 
in  speech,  slow  in  condemnation,  but  swift  to 
approve  where  approval  may  be  had.  As  the 
best  tempered  metal  is  flexible,  so  the  true  story 
of  human  endeavor  is  not  that  of  rigid  and  in¬ 
flexible  indefectibility,  but  in  the  recuperative 
power  of  the  soul  that  saves  and  raises  us, 
though  we  have  fallen  seven  times. 

'‘This,  personally;  communally  let  us  take 
home  the  same  lesson  of  modesty  of  bearing  and 
absence  of  assumption,  for  we  have  need  of  it. 
We  have  fallen  into  the  habit  of  considering  our¬ 
selves,  the  Jews,  as  almost  morally  unassailable. 
We  deem  our  history  the  most  glorious,  our 
mission  the  most  sublime,  our  faith  supreme 
among  the  annals  of  men.  Of  ourselves  we 
have  a  hardly  less  exalted  opinion.  And  when 
some  time-server,  some  seeker  after  our  suf¬ 
frages,  or  our  patronage,  or  our  influence,  or  char¬ 
ities,  come  to  us,  and  often  by  our  own  invita¬ 
tion,  and  pours  the  honey  of  fulsome  flattery 
before  us,  tells  us  ‘the  Iraelites  are  among  the 
best  and  most  highly  respected  of  our  citizens ;  * 
you  never  meet  a  Jewish  beggar,  and  you  never 
see  a  Jewish  drunkard,  or  convict,  or  burglar,’ 
then  we  gulp  that  honey  down  and  pat  our¬ 
selves  on  our  vain  and  foolish  backs,  and  tell 
ourselves  we  are  not  only  the  chosen  people, 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  PULPIT. 


247 


but  we  are  the  perfect  people,  we  are  the  salt  of 
every  community,  flawless,  stainless  and  sin¬ 
less. 

“There  can  be  no  greater  weakness  than  that 
which  denies  all  weakness.  With  the  first  part, 
the  abstract,  I  will  agree;  our  history,  our  mis¬ 
sion,  and  our  faith  are  sublime  and  supreme. 
But  Judaism  and  the  Jews,  while  they  should 
be  in  perfect  unanimity,  are  often  widely  di¬ 
verse.  The  faith  is  better  than  its  followers. 
It  is  folly  for  us  to  consider  ourselves  flawless. 
We  know  our  weaknesses.  We  cannot  hide 
them  by,  ostrich-like,  hiding  our  heads  in  the 
sand  heaps  of  self-interested  flattery.  ‘There 
is  no  man  who  may  not  sin,’  and  no  people,  for 
a  people  is  but  a  number  of  men.  We  know 
our  faults  and  sins  as  a  people,  our  cruel  cold¬ 
ness  to  our  faith,  our  heartless  indifference  to 
its  needs;  our  deafness  to  its  calls,  our  shame¬ 
facedness  in  acknowledgment  of  it,  our  avoid¬ 
ance  of  its  duties  and  obligations;  our  selfish, 
cruelly  selfish,  disregard  of  all  that  crosses  our 
convenience  or  our  pleasures. 

“There  is  greater  crime  in  knowing  and  con¬ 
tinuing  these  faults  than  in  the  faults  them¬ 
selves.  You  have  fallen.  Baise  yourselves  up. 
The  heroes  of  the  Bible  have  shown  the  path¬ 
way.  Be  ye  heroes,  not  in  never  having  fallen, 


248 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


but  fallen,  in  raising  yourselves  up;  for  the 
righteous  man  is  not  he  who  has  never  fallen, 
but  he  who  has  risen  up,  though  fallen  seven 
times.” 

religion’s  call. 

Rabbi  Samuel  Schulmann  thus  sets  forth  his 
view  of  life : 

“Our  life  is  and  remains  a  failure,  until  we 
have  learned  to  go  out  of  self,  humbly  obeying, 
lovingly,  helping,  joyously  clinging  to  God,  who 
is  to  be  for  us  the  very  essence  and  perfection 
of  what  is  true,  good  and  right.  The  good  way 
is  to  do  justice,  love  mercy  and  walk  in  humility 
with  God.  Paraphrased,  it  means  avoid  what  is 
wrong,  unjust,  impure.  Do  to  others  what  is 
helpful,  lifting  and  encouraging,  and  with  all  be 
ready  in  humility  without  any  claim  for  thyself 
even  to  offer  thyself  entirely  to  God. 

“Religion  always  has  been  and  is  to-day  this 
call  to  man  as  man.  To  observe  the  facts  of 
life,  to  study  its  tendencies,  and  find  the  way 
which  brings  rest  to  the  lacerated  heart,  the 
troubled  conscience,  the  aspiring  soul.  It  is  not 
merely  creed,  although  man,  being  intellectual, 
must  necessarily  make  one.  It  is  not  merely 
good  deeds,  although  this  is  the  noblest  fruit¬ 
age,  and  most  solid  proof  of  the  genuineness. 
It  is  not  ceremonial  and  symbolical,  although 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  PULPIT.  249 

these  are  helps.  Religion,  daughter  of  heaven, 
organic  to  man,  has  created  them  all.  It  is  that 
which  out  of  the  depths  of  man’s  being  calls  to 
him  saying:  ‘Stand  on  the  ways  and  study 
your  life;  seek  the  right  way,  and  walk  in  it 
and  you  will  find  rest.’  Who,  in  reviewing 
his  life,  does  not  find  the  need  of  faith,  of  a 
principle  higher  than  that  which  he  is  wont  to 
use  in  his  thoughtless  daily  experience?  The 
happy  need  religion  to  save  them  from  hard  in¬ 
difference  and  pride;  the  virtuous  need  it  to 
protect  them  from  self-righteousness,  the  cause 
of  moral  corruption ;  the  sinner  surely  needs  it 
as  an  inspiration,  a  promise  of  help  to  rise  from 
his  degradation.  Those  aspiring  to  a  higher  life 
obtain  renewed  conviction  from  its  message ;  the 
suffering  and  heart-broken  obtain  peace  and  rest. 
So,  friends,  let  us  seek  our  God  while  he  is  to 
be  found.  Let  us  call  upon  him  when  he  is 
near.  May  the  new  year  bring  to  all  life,  pros¬ 
perity  and  happiness.  But  as  we  pray,  ‘Re¬ 
member  us  to  life,  King  desirous  of  life,  for  Thy 
sake,  0  God  of  life,”  let  us  be  filled  with  the 
truth  that  this  prayer  brings  not  to  us  the  need¬ 
ful  help,  unless  it  is  supplemented  by  that  sim¬ 
ple  petition  of  the  divine  singer:  ‘0  make  me 
understand,  that  I  may  live.’  Let  us  learn  that 
to  truly  live  we  must  forget  self.  Let  us  ask 


260 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


the  ancient  ways,  find  the  way  that  is  good, 
the  way  that  turns  us  from  indolent,  thought¬ 
less,  self-indulgence,  from  impure  thoughts  and 
vicious  deeds,  from  cruel  and  heartless  want  of 
s}Tmpathy,  from  futile  pride  and  narrow  ego¬ 
tism.  Let  us  walk  the  way  of  God,  and  find 
rest  and  bliss,  peace  and  happiness.” 

A  DEFINITION  OF  JUDAISM. 

Rabbi  L.  S.  Moses,  defines  Judaism  thus: 

“Every  religion  is  judged  by  its  code  of  ethics. 
Israel  need  not  fear  to  stand  this  test,  for  if 
sifted  to  its  very  root,  Judaism  is  by  its  very 
nature  an  ethical  movement  It  sprang  into  ex¬ 
istence  in  opposition  to  the  immoral  practices  of 
the  religions  around  it.  The  very  first  call  to 
Abraham  and  the  promise  that  he  shall  be  a 
blessing,  is  based  on  the  assurance  that  he  will 
teach  the  way  of  God  to  his  children  and  to  his 
household,  to  do  justice  and  righteousness. 
What  are  then  the  requirements  of  true  religion? 
asks  the  Psalmist:  ‘Who  shall  ascend  the  hill  of 
the  Lord,  who  shall  stand  in  His  holy  place? 
He  who  has  clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart.’  Or 
listen  to  the  Prophets’  creed,  ‘Wherewith  shall 
I  come  before  the  Lord?  bow  myself  before  the 
Most  High?  He  has  told  thee,  0  man,  what  is 
good,  and  what  God  requires  of  thee;  to  do 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  PULPIT.  251 

justly,  to  love  virtue,  to  walk  humbly  with  thy 
God.’  Study  the  history  of  Israel.  The  stages 
of  his  growth  are  the  milestones  of  his  moral 
development;  intertwined  and  interwoven  with 
his  political  life  is  the  growth  of  his  ethical 
ideas.  Even  his  ceremonial  laws  and  precepts 
were  but  symbolical  of  moral  obligation.  The 
morality  of  Judaism  has  often  been  contrasted 
with  that  of  Christianity  and  declared  to  be  on 
a  lower  level,  and  resting  on  selfish  motives. 
If  there  be  traces  in  the  Old  Testament  and 
Talmudic  teachings  of  a  doctrine  that  makes 
reward  the  incentive  of  a  moral  act,  the  whole 
life  of  Israel  is  a  refutation  of  this  charge. 
For  a  whole  nation,  during  hundreds  of  years, 
to  pursue  a  path  of  duty  in  the  face  of  almost 
insurmountable  difficulties,  to  bear  the  persecu¬ 
tion  of  the  world  and  suffer  unparalleled  martyr¬ 
dom,  does  not  betray  a  selfish  nature  swayed 
by  mercenary  motives.  The  love  of  God  and 
the  love  of  virtue  did  not  bring  to  the  Jew  the 
compensation  craved  and  promised.  For,  let  it 
be  remembered  that  the  rewards  mentioned  in 
the  Old  Testament  have  reference  to  this  life  on 
earth  only,  to  temporal  happiness  and  well¬ 
being,  to  the  permanence  of  national  life;  there 
is  no  allusion  to  celestial  rewards,  to  heavenly 
banquets,  enlivened  by  angelic  music.  Yet  in 


252 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


the  face  of  facts,  what  were  the  rewards  of  the 
Jew  for  his  faithfulness  and  his  virtue?  If  he 
did  not  crave  heaven,  he  certainly  did  not  win 
the  earth ;  the  joys  and  pleasures  of  the  world 
were  not  his  share.  Nor  is  the  charge  of  inade¬ 
quate  morality  true  even  if  judged  by  the  cur¬ 
rent  of  his  literature.  The  present  generation 
of  high-minded  Christians  would  declare  it  a 
misstatement  of  facts  were  their  morality  to  be 
judged  by  the  standard  of  the  New  Testament 
only,  or  by  the  practices  of  the  mediaeval  church. 
They  claim  progress,  not  only  in  thought,  but 
also  in  morals.  Does  not  the  same  law  hold 
good  for  us?  Has  Israel  not  progressed  ethi¬ 
cally  as  well  as  intellectually  since  the  last  two 
thousand  years?  The  Talmud,  that  oft-ma¬ 
ligned  book,  is  full  of  passages  breathing  the 
most  unselfish  morality:  ‘Be  not  like  hired  ser¬ 
vants  that  work  for  reward.  Be  rather  like 
slaves  that  serve  their  master  without  thought 
of  compensation.’  And  another  rabbi  said, 
‘The  reward  of  a  good  deed  is  another  good 
deed,  and  one  virtue  brings  another  in  its  wake; 
and  the  punishment  of  sin  is  sin.’  Is  this  not  a 
higher  standard  of  virtue  than  the  leering 
glance  toward  a  crown  in  heaven?  To  do  good 
because  God  commanded  it  is  a  nobler  incentive 
than  to  do  God’s  command  in  order  to  save  one’s 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  PULPIT.  253 

soul.  Whether  the  soul  of  man  is  immortal  or 
not  is  a  matter  of  theological  speculation  and 
faith;  with  the  Jew  it  never  enters  as  a  motive 
of  morality.  As  God  is  merciful  and  kind  to 
His  creatures  out  of  His  infinite  love  and  com¬ 
passion  for  them,  so  must  man  fulfill  the  moral 
behest  out  of  his  deep  love  for  God — for  God’s 
sake  and  not  for  his  own  sake — neither  here  nor 
hereafter — shall  man  love  virtue  and  practice  it. 
This  theory  of  ethics  has  been  fully  exemplified 
in  the  life  of  Israel.  His  morality  has  not  been 
closed  up  in  a  book  and  read  as  devotional  liter¬ 
ature  on  the  Sabbath  Day  while  the  week  days 
testify  to  a  different  system;  but  his  whole  life 
was  permeated  by  the  feeling  of  moral  obliga¬ 
tion,  to  do  the  will  of  his  Heavenly  Father.  That 
will  is  a  righteous,  just  and  holy  one,  which  de¬ 
mands  not  of  a  man  anything  that  is  unreason¬ 
able,  unjust,  or  unholy.” 

INTELLECTUAL  PEIDE. 

Smartness  is  peculiarly  an  American  weak¬ 
ness,  and  has  been  the  death  of  some  people. 
Rabbi  Leon  Harrison  speaking  of  our  insane 
self-reliance,  this  turning  our  back  on  the  past 
because  we  know  more  than  our  fathers,  said: 

“  When  Disraeli  was  contesting  a  parliamentary 
election  he  spoke  at  a  turbulent  public  meeting 


254 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


as  an  independent  candidate  to  the  voters.  They 
were  dissatisfied  with  his  independent  principles 
and  the  cry  arose,  ‘What  is  your  platform? 
Where  do  you  stand,  sir?’  ‘On  my  head,’  was 
the  quick  reply.  His  platform  was  his  head. 
He  took  his  stand  upon  his  brains.  And  this 
generation  as  a  whole  is  trying  to  stand  on  its 
head;  to  plant  itself  upon  imperfect  informa¬ 
tion,  to  substitute  thinking  for  feeling,  and  facts 
for  faith.  There  is  a  world  of  difference  be¬ 
tween  being  headstrong  and  being  hearty.” 

THE  DIVINE  PUEPOSE  OF  THE  SYNAGOGUE 

is  thus  set  forth  by  Dr.  Bernard  Drachman: 

“The  humble  tabernacle  in  the  wilderness 
was  the  inception,  the  first  modest  beginning  of 
an  institution  which  was  destined  to  become 
the  central  feature,  the  chief  distinguishing 
characteristic  of  Judaism  and  the  daughter  re¬ 
ligions  descended  from  it — the  institution  of 
public  services  in  edifices  especially  devoted 
and  dedicated  to  the  worship  of  the  Most  High. 

This  naturally  turns  our  mind  to  a  considera¬ 
tion  of  the  whole  subject.  We  ask,  prompted 
by  an  involuntary  impulse,  ‘What  is  the  need  of 
these  pompous  edifices?  Is  the  worship  of  God 
only  conceivable  within  buildings  of  stone  and 
brick,  and  clothed  in  the  arguments  of  human 
ceremonialism?’ 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  PULPIT.  255 

“The  question  thus  put  must  be  answered  in 
the  negative.  Scripture  itself  points  to  nature 
as  better  adopted  to  impress  us  with  an  over¬ 
powering  sense  of  Divine  Omnipotence  and  to 
fill  our  being  with  deep  religious  emotions  than 
houses  built  by  mortal  hands,  and  were  they 
never  so  magnificent  and  imposing  in  the  beauty 
of  their  architecture  and  the  wealth  of  their  ap¬ 
pointments.  ‘The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of 
God,  and  the  work  of  His  hands  telleth  the 
firmament.’ 

“In  the  freedom  of  nature,  where  the  prime¬ 
val  forest  trees  rear  their  massive  trunks  and 
the  myriad  leaves  tremble  in  the  winds ;  where 
old  ocean  spreads  its  vast,  sheer,  illimitable 
expanse,  or  where  the  tremendous  mountains 
with  their  cloud-clad  summits  reduce  by  com¬ 
parison  the  puny  works  of  man  into  insignifi¬ 
cance,  there  indeed,  may  we  worship  in  rever¬ 
ential  awe  the  Omnipotent  Author  of  Nature 
and  repeat  with  rapture  born  of  conviction  the 
joyful  strain  of  the  seraphic  choir,  ‘Holy,  holy, 
holy,  is  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  the  whole  earth  is 
full  of  His  glory.’ 

Such  worship,  however,  while  most  true  and 
real,  does  not  suffice  for  the  religious  need  of 
man.  It  may  fill  him  with  a  profound  convic¬ 
tion  of  the  power  of  the  Deity  and  of  His  infi- 


256 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


nite  wisdom  in  thus  wonderfully  ordering  and 
governing  the  material  universe,  but  there  must 
stop.  It  cannot  teach  him  his  duties  toward 
the  Supreme  Being,  it  cannot  enlighten  him  con¬ 
cerning  his  place  among  his  fellow-men,  either 
as  a  member  of  the  religious  or  political  com¬ 
munity.  In  regard  to  all  these  matters  the  for¬ 
ests  and  the  mountains  are  dumb  and  the  sea 
returns  no  response  even  to  the  most  ardent 
and  urgent  pleadings,  but  continues  to  dash  its 
waves  against  the  rocky  barriers  of  the  cliffs 
with  unvarying,  dull  and  unintelligible  murmur. 

“Here  is  where  the  benefit  and  usefulness  of 
the  synagogue,  of  the  house  of  God,  is  most 
unquestionable  and  unmistakble. 

“The  synagogue  speaks  to  its  attendants  in 
clear  tones  and  distinct  accents ;  it  tells  them 
why  they  are  Jews  through  its  beautiful  sym¬ 
bols  and  usages,  so  rich  in  religious  significance; 
in  the  teachings  of  its  minister  and  the  suppli¬ 
cation  and  prayers  which  he  addresses  to  the 
Divine  Father;  it  keeps  constantly  awake  and 
alive  in  the  breasts  of  its  visitors  a  realizing 
sense  of  their  duties  as  moral  men  and  women 
and  as  faithful  Israelites  and  servants  of  God. 

“The  synagogue  is,  therefore,  the  fountain 
head  of  morality  and  faith ;  it  is  the  source  from 
which  flow  numberless  influences  for  good  unto 


THE  JEW  IN  THE  PULPIT. 


257 


those  within  the  reach  of  its  activity  which 
tend  to  purify  and  ennoble  their  lives,  to  con¬ 
secrate  their  hands  and  hearts  to  the  doing  of 
whatever  is  righteous  and  good,  and  to  elevate 
their  minds  by  turning  them  from  worldly  things 
to  the  contemplation  of  the  sublime  ideal 
afforded  by  the  Perfect  One  before  whom  we 
bow  in  humble  worship  and  homage. 

“The  symbols  of  the  sanctuary  beautifully 
suggest  its  purposes.  Our  sages  say  that  on 
three  things  the  welfare  of  the  world  depends — 
the  law,  the  service  of  God  and  the  doing  of 
kindness  to  others.  The  ark  of  the  testimony 
is  a  symbol  of  the  first,  the  altar  of  the  second, 
and  the  heart  offering  which  was  given  by  the 
free  will  of  the  heart  is  a  symbol  of  the  third  of 
these  three  requisites.  The  cherubim  convey  a 
similar  symbolic  meaning.  Their  wings  were 
uplifted  to  indicate  that  the  human  soul  should 
endeavor  to  commune  with  the  Father  in 
heaven;  they  stood  by  the  ark  of  the  testimony 
to  denote  that  all  religion  must  be  grounded  on 
the  divine  law,  and  their  faces  looked  toward 
each  other  to  show  that  men  must  meet  each 
other  in  mutual  affection,  esteem,  and  kindness. 

“We  cannot  surrender  the  synagogue,  its  les¬ 
sons  are  too  valuable,  its  inspiration  too  potent 
and  salutary.  For  us  Jews  it  has  an  additional 


258 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


value,  for  it  is  to  us  a  spiritual  home,  a  world 
different  from  that  by  which  we  are  surrounded. 

“In  the  synagogue  we  behold  again  our  glori¬ 
ous  antiquity,  we  sing  the  songs  of  Zion,  we 
pray  in  the  sacred  tongue  of  Zion,  we  meet  in 
spiritual  communion  the  prophets,  the  lawgiver 
the  rabbins,  the  great  and  holy  men  of  all  ages 
— we  listen  again  to  their  voices  and  are  in¬ 
structed  by  their  words  of  wisdom. 

“Oh,  long  may  the  synagogue  stand  to  draw 
Israel  nearer  to  its  God!  Never  may  the  sum¬ 
mons  cease  to  be  heard,  ‘Open  ye  the  gates  and 
let  enter  the  holy  nation  which  keepeth  the 
faith.’ — Amen.” 


The  Attitude  of  Modern  Judaism  Toward 

Christianity. 


Why  not  strive  through  the  coming  ages  to  live  in  fraternal 
concord  and  harmonious  unison  with  all  the  nations  of  the 
globe?  Not  theory  but  practice,  deed  not  creed,  should  be  the 
watchword  of  modern  races  stamped  with  blazing  characters  of 
rational  equity  and  useful  brotherhood.— Rabbi  Alexander 
Kohut. 

Truth  unites  and  appeases;  error  begets  antagonism  and 
fanaticism.  It  seems,  therefore,  the  best  method  to  unite  the 
human  family  in  harmony,  peace  and  good  will  is  to  construct  a 
rational  and  humane  system  of  theology,  as  free  from  error  as 
possible,  clearly  defined  and  appealing  directly  to  the  reason  and 
conscience  of  all  normal  men.— Rabbi  Isaac  M.  Wise. 


THE  ATTITUDE  OF  MODERN  JUDAISM. 


261 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  ATTITUDE  OF  MODERN  JUDAISM  TOWARD 

CHRISTIANITY. 

Rabbi  Gustav  Gottheil,  whose  record  of 
twenty-five  years  in  New  York  City  is  one  of 
broad  philanthropy,  profound  scholarship  and 
earnest  devotion  to  the  cause  of  religion,  is  a 
splendid  exponent  of  the  attitude  of  modern 
Judaism  toward  Christ. 

In  a  series  of  lectures  which  Dr.  Gottheil  de¬ 
livered  on  the  theme  “Jesus  and  the  Jews,”  he 
stood  manfully  for  the  view  that,  as  a  people, 
the  Jews  never  did  reject  Jesus.  He  pointed  to 
the  fact  that,  as  in  the  days  of  Jesus,  the  Jews 
were  already  widely  scattered,  and  the  means 
of  communication  were  slow  and  difficult,  only 
a  small  minority  of  the  race  within  the  bound¬ 
aries  of  Judea  were  cognizant  of  the  mission, 
the  teachings,  the  doings  or  even  the  existence 
of  Jesus.  The  great  majority  were  in  complete 
ignorance  of  his  life  and  the  manner  of  his 
death,  and  therefore  could  not  be  held  account¬ 
able  for  the  tragedy  of  Calvary. 


262 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


The  New  Testament,  Dr.  Gottheil  pointed 
out,  records  in  many  places  that  in  Judea  itself 
wherever  He  went  Jesus  was  followed  by 
crowds,  who  listened  eagerly  to  His  doctrines. 
He  was  admitted  into  the  synagogues,  though 
His  teachings  were  subversive  of  the  prevailing 
religion  and  the  existing  social  system,  and 
when  He  drove  the  money  changers  from  the 
temple  itself  it  is  not  recorded  that  any  one 
rose  in  opposition.  He  bitterly  assailed  the 
Pharisees,  and  yet  when  He  predicted  the  ruin 
of  the  temple  and  nation,  and  some  would  have 
stoned  Him,  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  gathered 
around  to  protect  him. 

The  Gospels  seem  to  Dr.  Gottheil  to  show 
that  the  Jews  rejected  Jesus  only  “as  God  or 
part  of  the  deity.”  “As  a  moral  instructor 
they  listened  to  Him  with  respect,”  said  Dr. 
Gottheil.  “As  the  Messiah  they  neither  ac¬ 
cepted  nor  rejected  Him,  waiting  for  the  proofs 
of  His  claim,  for  they  had  been  taught  to  expect 
an  earthly  ‘King  of  the  Jews.’  Jesus  was 
loved  and  respected,  and  when  He  entered 
Jerusalem  He  had  a  royal  reception,  and  some 
cried  ‘Hosannah  to  the  son  of  David!’  so  that 
the  whole  city  was  stirred  by  the  tumult.  The 
scribes,  who  were  the  guardians  of  the  public 
peace,  were  appalled  by  His  revolutionary  and 


THE  ATTITUDE  OF  MODERN  JUDAISM.  263 

communistic  doctrines  and  feared  the  vengeance 
of  Rome.  The  few  priests  who  opposed  Him 
did  so,  as  they  thought,  in  the  interests  of 
peace.” 

In  a  recent  sermon  on  “Reconciliation,”  Dr. 
Gottheil  selected  for  his  text:  “Have  we  not  all 
one  father?  Hath  not  one  God  created  us  all?” 

“Those  who  gave  any  attention  to  the  char¬ 
acter  of  the  topics  that  I  chose  for  these  lec¬ 
tures,”  said  the  preacher,  “must  have  noticed 
that  they  all  tended  in  one  direction  namely,  to 
advocate  a  better  understanding  and  a  more 
friendly  disposition  between  the  various  creeds 
and  churches.  I  recall  some  of  those  who  be¬ 
lieve  that  the  churches  should  also  disarm. 
But  then  follows  the  question,  ‘After  disarma¬ 
ment,  what?’ 

“Judaism  and  Christianity  originally  were 
of  one  faith.  They  are  children  of  the  same 
household,  and  their  division  has  been  of 
no  advantage  to  either  side.  They  have  still 
more  things  in  common  than  causes  for  division. 
Have  we  not  all  one  father?  Do  not  all  worship 
the  same  God?  We  Israelites  call  ourselves 
monotheists,  and  would  not  the  Christian  hotly 
resent  the  imputation  that  he  is  a  polytheist? 
Then  there  is  the  Bible,  and  I  must  confess  that 
the  majority  of  Christians  are  far  more  zealous 


284 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


in  maintaining  the  high  authority  of  this  ancient 
book  than  are  we  Jews.  True,  the  church  has 
added  another  book  to  it  like  a  superstructure. 
But  what  would  that  be  without  its  foundation 
of  the  Old  Testament?  You  cannot  shake  that 
without  endangering  the  safety  of  the  whole 
building. 

“Are  we  not  monotheists?  Do  we  not  believe 
in  one  God?  Certainly;  and  our  Christian 
friends  would  justly  resent  it  were  we  to  call 
them  polytheists.  Then,  here  is  our  Bible,  the 
sacredness  of  which,  I  am  candid  enough  to 
say,  is  better  maintained  by  the  Christians. 
That  church  added  the  New  Testament.  By 
whom  was  it  written?  Every  page  by  Jewish 
hands — the  most  vital  part  by  Paul,  a  Hebrew 
of  the  Hebrews,  a  rabbi  of  the  strictest  stripe, 
than  whom,  after  his  conversion,  there  never 
was  a  prouder  Israelite.  This  Old  Testament 
of  ours  is  the  foundation  stone  of  all  Christian¬ 
ity.  Although  a  superstructure  has  been 
added,  does  that  invalidate  the  foundation? 

“This  is  the  time  for  great  combinations  in 
mercantile  affairs.  I  do  not  possess  much  capa¬ 
city  for  financial  affairs,  and  I  never  have  been 
sorry  for  it.  But  the  children  of  this  world  are 
wise  in  their  generation.  Why  should  not  we 
whose  field  of  action  lies  in  a  special  sphere 


THE  ATTITUDE  OF  MODERN  JUDAISM.  265 

take  a  point  from  them  and  make  our  own  busi¬ 
ness  enterprises  less  expensive  and  more  effec¬ 
tive  by  putting  our  heads  and  hands  together 
and  working  so  much  more  effectively  for  the 
relief  of  the  suffering  and  the  saving  of  those 
who  are  ready  to  perish? 

“One  other  point  that  seems  to  plead  for 
unity  is  that  of  the  broadening  of  our  views. 
Each  church  has  its  strong  and  weak  sides. 
Some  people  seem  to  attach  the  greatest  im¬ 
portance  to  the  life  in  the  other  world  to  which 
the  present  is  only  a  stepping  stone,  while 
others  are  sure  that  they  can  create  a  paradise 
here  on  earth,  and  try  to  do  so.  Some  wrap 
themselves  up  in  endless  formalities  and 
rituals,  as  our  own  people  did  for  many  centu¬ 
ries,  and  our  orthodox  folk  are  still  doing. 
Others  would  throw  off  all  forms  and  so  spirit¬ 
ualize  and  moralize  their  religious  faith  that 
they  justify  the  remark  recently  made  by  a 
young  student  in  our  Hebrew  Union  College 
that  the  ultra-radicals  would  reduce  Judaism  to 
an  ethical  culture  society  with  God  as  an  honor¬ 
ary  member. 

“Well,  we  are  all  entitled  to  our  opinions. 
But  would  it  not  be  of  great  advantage  if  we 
came  nearer  to  each  other  and  tried  by ‘rubbing 
against  each  other*  to  smooth  off  the  sharp  cor- 


266 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


ners  of  our  systems?  People  travel  thousands 
of  miles  and  cross  oceans  merely  to  learn  the 
habits  and  accomplishments  of  other  nations. 
But  in  the  spiritual  continent  we  are  satisfied 
and  even  make  boast  of  being  totally  ignorant 
of  the  homes  of  our  next-door  neighbors. 

“Is  my  plea  timely?  I  unhesitatingly  say 
yes.  At  the  period  when  we  still  remember  the 
congress  of  religions  in  Chicago,  when  we  hear 
of  a  congress  of  liberal  religions  held  only  re¬ 
cently  at  Omaha,  and  when  there  is  a  prospect 
that  before  this  summer  is  over  there  will  be  a 
congress  of  all  churches  in  our  State,  here  in 
our  city,  I  think  I  may  claim  that  I  am  acting 
on  the  Biblical  principle.  ‘A  word  in  season, 
oh,  how  good  it  is!’  ’’ 

THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  IN  THE  LIGHT  OF  JUDAISM. 

Rev.  Dr.  K.  Kohler  recently  delivered  a  lecture 
on  “The  New  Testament  in  the  light  of  Juda¬ 
ism”  before  the  Philadelphia  council  of  Jewish 
women.  In  taking  the  New  Testament  as  his 
subject,  Dr.  Kohler  said  that  he  proposed  to 
offer  some  aids  toward  finding  the  true  histori¬ 
cal  setting  from  a  Jewish  point  of  view  for  that 
great  personality  which  has  divided  human  his¬ 
tory  into  two  halves.  We  quote  from  the  report 
of  his  lecture  as  printed  in  The  Jewish  Exponent: 


THE  ATTITUDE  OF  MODERN  JUDAISM.  267 

“There  was  a  time  when  you  and  I  were 
taught  not  even  to  mention  the  name  of  Jesus 
the  Christ  in  order  not  to  transgress  the  law, 
which  says:  ‘Ye  shall  not  mention  the  name  of 
other  gods,  neither  shall  it  be  heard  upon  your 
mouth.’  Nor  need  we  wonder  at  that.  It  was 
little  short  of  idolatry  which  a  paganized  church 
made  herself  guilty  of  in  her  worship  of  Jesus 
and  His  mother.  Christianity  has  advanced 
since  toward  the  light  of  Jewish  monotheism. 
It  is  Jesus  as  a  man,  as  an  ideal  of  humanity, 
that  is  now  held  up  for  adoration  and  emula¬ 
tion  by  Christian  theology,  in  spite  of  the  Trini¬ 
tarian  dogma.  Both  art  and  literature  portray 
Him  no  longer  as  a  God,  but  as  a  wondrously 
gifted  teacher  and  healer  of  men,  who  appeals 
to  our  human  sympathy.  Nay,  more.  His 
Apollo  face  gave  way  to  the  historically  more 
correct  type  of  the  Jew.  He  is  recognized  as 
one  of  Israel’s  great  sons,  whatever  the  restric¬ 
tion  in  the  flesh  may  amount  to,  Should  we, 
then,  as  Jews,  not  also  gladly  and  proudly  own 
Him  as  one  of  our  noblest  of  men  and  accord  to 
Him  the  proper  position  in  our  own  history? 
The  difficulty  is  how  to  obtain  a  correct  view  of 
His  life  and  character,  and  discern  the  real  facts 
amidst  all  the  legends  surrounding  His  career 
from  the  cradle  to  the  grave.’’ 


268 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


Dr.  Kohler  went  on  to  say  that  neither  Renan 
nor  any  of  the  German  or  English  critics  suc¬ 
ceeded  in  presenting  a  true  picture  of  the  Gali¬ 
lean  preacher.  Of  the  attitude  taken  by  Jew¬ 
ish  historians,  he  said: 

“Geiger  treats  Him  like  David  Strauss,  as  a 
sort  of  myth,  while  reducing  Him  to  a  mere 
shadow  of  Hillel,  the  liberal-minded  Pharisee. 
Graetz  sees  in  the  whole  movement  only  the 
outcome  of  the  Essene  school,  and  so  the  whole 
New  Testament  literature  is  brushed  aside  with 
a  shrug.  Only  the  figure  of  Paul  stands  out  in 
bold  relief  as  the  actual  builder  of  the  church 
of  Christian  opposition  to  the  Jewish  law.  Be¬ 
sides  these,  a  few  popular  writers  like  old  Dr. 
Philippson  of  Magdeburg,  and  Dr.  Wise  of  Cin¬ 
cinnati,  have  endeavored  to  show  that  the  crim¬ 
inal  proceedings  which  ended  in  the  crucifixion 
of  Jesus  cannot  possibly  have  been  carried  on 
before  a  Jewish  court  in  the  manner  recorded 
in  the  Gospels,  and  that,  consequently,  the 
Jews  are  reported  in  a  false  light.  A  critical 
work,  doing  full  justice  to  the  character  of 
Jesus  as  a  worker  among  the  Jews  and  present¬ 
ing  His  sayings  and  doings  or  whatever  is  attrib¬ 
uted  to  Him  m  the  full  daylight  of  history,  has 
not  been  attempted  as  yet.’ 

“As  the  clouds  neveal  rather  than  hide  the 


THE  ATTITUDE  OF  MODERN  JUDAISM.  269 

dawn,”  continued  Dr.  Kohler,  “so  do  the  myths 
that  gather  around  a  popular  hero  disclose 
rather  than  obscure  the  charm  and  power  of  his 
personality.  He  continues: 

“Those  beautiful  and  strange  tales  about  the 
things  that  happened  around  the  Lake  of  Galilee 
show  that  there  was  some  spiritual  daybreak  in 
that  dark  corner  of  Judea  of  which  official  Juda¬ 
ism  had  not  taken  sufficient  cognizance,  that  a 
movement  was  inaugurated  then  which  did  not 
receive  its  impulse  or  its  sanction  from  the  reg¬ 
ular  authorities  or  schools.  It  matters  not 
whether  we  accord  to  Jesus  the  claim  and  title 
of  Messiah  or  Christ  or  not,  whether  the  people 
and  authorities  of  Judea  did  or  not,  or  whether 
He  Himself  assumed  it  at  any  moment  of  His 
life,  or,  as  the  older  sources  indicate,  He  re¬ 
ceived  the  same  only  after  His  death.  Chris¬ 
tianity  forms  the  high-water  mark  of  the  Mes¬ 
sianic  movement  in  a  spiritual  sense,  exactly  as 
the  Barkochba  war,  under  the  Emperor  Hartian, 
was  its  highest  and  last  political  explosion.  It 
is,  therefore,  one  of  the  most  interesting  his¬ 
torical  and  psychological  studies  of  Judaism  to 
follow  this  movement  through  all  its  phases 
from  the  moment  the  cry  of  the  coming — ‘the 
kingdom  of  heaven’ — was  heard  on  the  shores 
of  the  Jordan  among  the  humble  Baptists  until 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


270 

the  fishermen  of  Galilee  carried  the  good  tidings 
or  good  spell  (gospel)  as  the  watchword  of  a 
new  faith  triumphantly  out  into  the  wide 
world/’ 

Dr.  Kohler  went  on  to  say  that  all  records 
point  to  John  the  Baptist  as  the  originator  of 
this  movement  of  repentance  and  purification, 
and  that  Jesus  was  among  those  who  received 
baptism  at  his  hands.  But  between  the  atti¬ 
tudes  of  the  people  toward  these  two  teachers, 
there  yawns  a  gulf  “which  no  ordinary  reasoning 
of  either  Jew  or  Gentile  could  easily  bridge 
over.’’  The  New  Testament  writings,  we  are 
told,  are  so  many  pleas  and  learned  arguments 
to  convince  both  Jews  and  Gentiles  that  Jesus 
is  the  Messiah.  Modern  Bible  criticism  estab¬ 
lishes  that  the  four  gospels  were  written  in  the 
form  in  which  we  possess  them  between  the 
time  of  the  restoration  of  the  temple  in  the 
year  70  and  the  Hadrianic  war,  120  Christian 
era.  To  Dr.  Kohler  these  gospels  are  not 
merely  treatises  pleading  for  Jesus  Christ,  but 
polemical  writings  intended  to  win  the  favor  of 
Rome  by  fixing  the  blame  of  the  Crucifixion 
upon  the  hated  Jew.  This  he  finds  true  of  the 
Pauline  gospel  in  particular : 

“It  is  the  product  of  Christianized  Philonic 
philosophy.  Jesus  therein  speaks  and  acts  no 


THE  ATTITUDE  OF  MODERN  JUDAISM.  271 

longer  as  an  ordinary  man,  but  as  the  Word  of 
God  become  flesh.  He  is  no  longer  to  be  com¬ 
pared  with  Moses,  who  brought  down  the  bread 
from  heaven  and  water  out  of  the  rock,  but  He 
is  Himself  the  heavenly  Manna,  the  Bread  and 
the  Water  of  life,  like  the  Torah.  He  only  is 
the  good  Shepherd,  for  He  is  the  Door  and  the 
Life  of  the  flock.  The  whole  book  is  a  beautiful 
Christian  Midrash,  a  commentary  on  the  Gospel 
story,  but  full  of  venomous  hatred  of  the  Jews. 
These  are  represented  as  the  enemies  of  Jesus, 
ever  eager  to  kill  Him,  and  at  the  same  time 
so  stupid  as  not  to  know  what  rebirth  or  regen¬ 
eration,  what  resurrection  or  pre-existence  is. 
Those  very  ideas  which  Christianity  derived 
from  Judaism  remain  unintelligible  to  the  stub¬ 
born  Jews.  In  fact,  the  entire  contest  of  Jesus 
with  the  priesthood  and  the  scribes  is  here 

transferred  to  the  Jews  as  a  race . 

“It  is  preposterous  to  imagine  that  the  Jews, 
praying  day  after  day  in  their  synagogues  for  the 
coming  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  and  the  de¬ 
livery  from  the  yoke  of  Home,  should  have  hated 
and  persecuted  Jesus,  who,  of  all  the  preachers 
of  good  tidings,  was  the  most  tender-hearted 
and  meekest.  Impossible  that  the  crowds 
should  have  cried  out:  ‘Crucify  Him!’  when 
two  days  before  they  had  greeted  Him  with: 


272  JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 

‘Hosannah  to  the  son  of  David !’  Still  more  im¬ 
possible  that  the  bloodthirsty  Roman  Pontius 
Pilate  should  have  all  of  a  sudden  become  scru¬ 
pulous  and  lenient  toward  Jesus,  and,  while 
His  hangmen,  the  soldiers,  mocked  and  smote 
and  treated  Him  in  the  most  brutal  manner,  he 
should  have  washed  His  hands,  in  Jewish  fash¬ 
ion,  to  protest  His  own  innocence  in  the  con¬ 
demnation  and  crucifixion!  Later  on,  in  Chris¬ 
tian  writings,  Pontius  Pilate  appears  as  a  verit¬ 
able  saint  and  the  Jews  as  fiends.  It  is  high 
time  for  us  Jews  to  take  up  the  study  of  the 
New  Testament  in  order  to  remonstrate  against 
this  forgery,  this  Dreyfus  case  of  eighteen  hun¬ 
dred  years  ago,  and  refute  the  incriminating 
charge  implied  in  the  word:  ‘Let  His  blood 
be  on  us  and  our  children!’  by  which  the  poison 
and  Jew  hatred  is  being  instilled  in  the  heart  of 
all  generations.” 

According  to  Dr.  Kohler,  the  priestly  Sad- 
ducees,  not  the  people  and  their  Phariseean 
leaders,  persecuted  Jesus  and  delivered  Him  to 
death,  because  of  His  open  attack  upon  priestly 
misrule.  All  the  anti-Jewish  utterances  he 
finds  to  be  the  work  of  the  Pauline  school: 

“Paul  had  a  great  providential  mission  to  ful¬ 
fill.  We  must  not  deny  him  this,  though  we 
cannot  follow  him  in  his  quaint  logic  nor  in  his 


THE  ATTITUDE  OF  MODERN  JUDAISM.  273 

bewildering  metaphysics  or  mysticism.  His 
letters  are  the  manifestation  of  a  strong  mind 
and  firm  spirit  akin  to  Pope  Hildebrand, 
Luther,  and  Calvin.  What  a  few  heretics  be¬ 
fore  him  attempted,  and  failed,  he  achieved  on  a 
grand  scale — he  broke  down  the  barriers  of  the 
law  to  let  the  heathen  world  enter  the  kingdom 
of  the  Messiah.  He  gave  Christianity  a  new 
meaning,  a  new  direction.  He  created  a  new 
church.  He  stands  at  the  parting  of  the  ways. 
He  is  no  longer  a  Jew,  though  he  called  himself 
a  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews  and  one  of  the  Phar¬ 
isees.  Quite  different  is  the  life  work  of  Jesus. 
Every  word  uttered  by  Him  has  the  ring  of 
Jewish  sentiment  and  betrays  the  originality  of 

a  religious  genius . 

“There  are  hundreds  of  sentences  in  the  Tal¬ 
mud  or  Mishnah  similar  to  those  in  the  New 
Testament,  only  they  lack  the  charm  and 
beauty  the  classical  language  of  Greece  has  lent 
to  the  latter.  Nevertheless,  we  cannot  close 
our  eyes  to  the  one  great  fact  that  this  man 
Jesus  must  have  made  a  wonderful  impression 
on  His  hearers  by  the  thousand  and  one  sweet 
and  beautiful  things  He  said,  no  matter  by 
whom  they  were  uttered  before  or  after,  or  else 
He  could  not  have  been  made  author  of  these  a 
generation  or  two  after  He  lived.  .  .  ' .  .  . 


274 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


“Time  does  not  permit  me  to  show  in  what 
respect  and  why  Jesus  deviated  from  John  the 
Baptist  and  the  rest  of  the  Essenes.  Suffice  it 
to  say  that  His  greatness  belonged  to  no  school. 
He  was  a  man  of  the  people.  The  Essene  ideal 
of  love  and  brotherly  kindness  took  a  new  form 
in  Him.  He  felt  that  divine  power  of  pity 
which  cares  not  for  the  pollution  of  sinners,  if 
only  the  tears  can  be  wiped  out  by  tears  of  pen¬ 
itence.  He  had,  unlike  any  other  teacher  or 
prophet,  a  message,  a  gospel  of  heavenly  re¬ 
demption  for  the  despised,  the  illiterate,  the 
forsaken,  and  they  crowned  Him  with  the  dia¬ 
dem  of  the  Messiah. 

“His  wondrous  powers  of  healing  also  show 
Him  to  have  been  a  disciple  of  the  Essenes. 
The  holy  spirit  which  played  so  prominent  a 
role  in  the  life  of  the  Essenes  works  also  mir¬ 
acles  through  Him,  carries  Him  through  the  air, 
and  opens  the  prison  door  for  His  disciples.” 

THE  JEWISH  SUNDAY- SABBATH. 

One  of  the  few  questions  which  divide  the  Jew¬ 
ish  church  in  this  country  to-day  is  that  relat¬ 
ing  to  the  observance  of  one  day  in  seven  as  a 
day  of  rest  and  worship.  On  this  point  the 
views  held  by  different  classes  and  leaders  of 
the  Jewish  people  differ  widely.  The  reform 


THE  ATTITUDE  OF  MODERN  JUDAISM.  275 

Jews  are  in  favor  of  observing  Sunday  instead 
of  Saturday,  thus  conforming,  as  they  say,  to  the 
established  custom  of  the  vast  majority  of  the 
people  in  civilized  lands.  The  orthodox  Jews 
vigorously  oppose  such  a  measure  of  conformity 
as  contrary  both  to  the  spirit  and  the  doctrine 
of  the  founders  of  their  faith.  The  discussion 
of  this  subject  has  been  given  special  attention 
recently  by  reason  of  the  observance  of  the 
twenty-fifth  anniversary  in  Chicago  of  the  in¬ 
stitution  of  Sunday  observance  in  the  Sinai  con¬ 
gregations  in  that  city. 

The  chief  points  in  favor  of  the  change  from 
Saturday  to  Sunday  were  presented  in  an  ad¬ 
dress  made  by  Rabbi  Joseph  Krauskopf  in  Phil¬ 
adelphia  and  printed  in  full  in  The  Reform  Ad¬ 
vocate  (Jewish,  Chicago).  Speaking  of  the 
leaders  of  the  movement  Dr.  Krauskopf  said: 

“They  saw  that  the  Jewish  Sabbath-day  of 
the  Orient  did  not  fit  into  the  different  condi¬ 
tions  of  the  Christianized  Occident.  They 
recognized  that  the  different  conditions  created 
by  the  hundreds  of  millions  of  Christian  people 
could  not  be  altered  to  suit  the  preference  of  the 
handful  of  Jews, and  that  the  attempt  of  forcing  it 
could  only  result  disastrously  for  the  Sabbath 
and  the  Jew.  And  so  they  determined  to  ex¬ 
change  the  no  longer  suitable  Oriental  frame  of 


276 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


the  beautiful  Sabbath  for  the  Occidental  frame, 
and  thus  retain  within  its  new  setting  the  glory 
and  beauty  of  the  old  Jewish  Sabbath.  They 
determined  to  preserve  all  its  essentials,  all  of 
its  spirit  of  holiness  and  rest  and  delight,  as  en- 
joind  in  Scriptures,  only  shifting  it  from  the 
day  once  best  suited  for  the  observance  in  the 
Orient,  the  Saturday,  to  the  only  day  now  pos¬ 
sible  for  its  rightful  observance  and  perpetua¬ 
tion  in  the  Occident,  the  Sunday.” 

Reviewing  the  arguments  of  the  opponents  of 
the  movement  Dr.  Krauskopf  declares  that  the 
custom  of  observing  Saturday  as  a  holy  day 
was  heathen  in  its  origin  and  was  so  observed 
long  before  the  law  was  given  on  Sinai.  The 
change  proposed  is  therefore  “simply  substitu¬ 
ting  one  Sabbath-day  of  heathen  origin  for  an¬ 
other  of  the  same  origin.”  For  this  reason  Dr. 
Krauskopf  contends  that  the  change  is  not  “a 
concession  to  Christianity.”  But  on  this  point 
Dr.  Krauskopf  proceeds  to  say  further: 

“And  even  if  we  had  made  a  concession,  I  for 
one  will  not  hesitate  to  take  from  it  what  is 
true  and  good  and  serviceable,  and  proudly  and 
publicly  acknowledge  my  indebtedness.  Has 
not  Christianity  taken  from  us  what  is  true  and 
good  and  serviceable  in  its  creed?  Is  not  its 
God  our  God?  Is  not  the  head  of  its  church  a 


THE  ATTITUDE  OF  MODERN  JUDAISM.  277 

son  of  our  race?  Is  not  its  very  Sunday  rest 
our  Sabbath,  and  shall  we  refuse  to  accept  what 
is  our  own,  because  it  is  celebrated  on  a  day 
originally  sacred  to  the  sun,  and  not  on  the  day 
originally  sacred  to  the  moon  or  Saturn,  or  be¬ 
cause  the  heathen  dogma  of  a  Gocl-resurrection 
and  not  of  a  God-resting  has  been  attached  to 
that  day? 

‘What!’  interpose  our  antagonists,  ‘cele¬ 
brate  our  Sabbath  on  the  day  chosen  by  Con¬ 
stantine  the  Great  and  by  the  Council  of  Nice  as 
a  mark  of  separation  of  the  Christian  Church 
from  the  hated  and  despised  Jewish  Church!’ 
This  opposition,  too,  is  largely  based  on  erro¬ 
neous  grounds.  It  was  not  they,  the  enemies  of 
the  Jews,  who  chose  the  Sunday.  It  was  Paul, 
the  Jew,  who  embraced  it,  almost  three  cen¬ 
turies  earlier — in  his  give-and-take  policy — in 
order  that  he  might  find  readier  access  for  his 
new  teachings,  which,  for  the  most  part,  were 
Jewish.” 

And  as  for  the  argument  that  the  Sunday - 
Sabbath  will  end  the  distinction  of  the  Jews  as 
a  separate  church  and  people,  it  is  replied : 

‘‘And  why  should  we  be  distinguishable,  and 
chiefly  by  a  Saturday- Sabbath  whose  present 
mode  of  observance  by  us  contributes  far  more 
to  our  shame  than  to  our  distinction?  And  is 


278 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


Judaism  dependent  for  its  distinction  and  per¬ 
petuation  on  the  outward  form?  And  what  of  our 
oft-professed  duty  to  enlighten  the  non- Jew  con¬ 
cerning  the  true  religion?  What  of  our  much-pro¬ 
claimed  mission  of  uniting  the  whole  human  fam¬ 
ily  into  a  common  brotherhood  under  the  com¬ 
mon  fatherhood  of  God?  Shall  we  expect  the 
non- Jew  to  flock  to  our  deserted  shrines  on  Satur¬ 
day,  whither  Jews  will  not  or  cannot  flock  on 
that  day?  Shall  we  expect  non-Jews  to  make 
the  sacrifices  on  that  day  which  the  Jew  him¬ 
self  will  not  or  cannot  make.  When  are  we  to 
do  our  preaching  and  teaching  to  the  non-Jew, 
if  on  Saturday  he  cannot  attend,  and  if  on  Sun¬ 
day,  when  he  is  free  to  attend,  we  keep  the 
doors  of  our  shrines  locked?  Those  of  us  who 
have  opened  wide  the  doors  of  our  shrines  on 
Sunday,  and  have  extended  a  hearty  welcome 
to  all  who  cared  to  come  and  listen,  have  abun¬ 
dantly  realized  that  Judaism  has  never  had  a 
missionary  like  the  Sunday-Sabbath,  that  it  has 
attracted  thousands  of  non-Jews  to  our  services 
and  sermons,  and  has  made  friends  and  sup¬ 
porters  and  champions  of  those  who,  before  that, 
had  been  swayed  by  prejudices  against  Jews, 
and  by  animosities  against  Judaism.” 

Among  the  papers  strongly  opposed  to  the  in¬ 
novation  is  The  Jewish  Exponent  (Philadelphia). 


THE  ATTITUDE  OF  MODERN  JUDAISM.  279 

It  declares  that  the  Sunday-Sabbath,  so  far  as 
observed,  has  not  been  a  success,  that  it  has  not 
increased  the  attendance  at  religious  services, 
and  that  it  has  failed  to  promote  that  unity  and 
harmony  between  Jews  and  non-Jews  which  it 
was  claimed  it  would  do.  It  proceeds  from  this 
to  say  : 

“If  a  Sunday-Sabbath  for  Jews  is  impossible, 
there  remains  but  the  alternative  of  observance 
of  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  as  of  yore,  the  symbol 
of  our  covenant  with  God,  the  bond  of  our  union 
with  Israel  throughout  the  world,  the  hallowing 
and  consecrating  power  throughout  our  past 
history,  the  source  and  means  of  our  survival 
to  the  present  day.  We  have  no  word  of  scorn 
for  ‘women-proxies.’  We  say  to  the  women  in 
Israel,  Go  on  in  the  sacred  work  of  Sabbath 
preservation.  Sanctify  your  homes,  that  there¬ 
in,  at  least,  the  Sabbath  spirit  may  abide,  and 
that  all  those  who  dwell  therein  may  feel  its  con¬ 
secrating  power  throughout  their  entire  lives. 
Let  every  effort  at  Sabbath  observance  be  en¬ 
couraged.  We  have  no  scorn  for  those  who 
would  sanctify  even  a  portion  of  the  day.  To 
an  even  greater  extent  is  this  day  becoming  of 
less  and  less  importance  in  legal  and  finan¬ 
cial  circles,  in  wholesale  business  and  manufac¬ 
turing  industries.  In  the  summer,  to  a  very 


280 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


large  extent,  and  throughout  the  rest  of  the 
year  in  many  pursuits,  it  has  become  a  half-hol¬ 
iday.  Were  the  Jews  unitedly  to  abstain  from 
labor  its  importance  would  be  still  further  re¬ 
duced.  The  sacrifice  involved  might  then  be 
easily  made  and  the  Jew  would  present  an  ap¬ 
pearance  before  the  world  that  would  inspire 
even  the  veriest  antisemite  with  admiration. 
‘How  shall  we  enlighten  the  non -Jew  concern¬ 
ing  the  true  religion?’  is  asked.  We  answer, 
not  by  abandoning,  but  by  conforming  to  our 
faith;  not  by  words,  but  by  deeds,  testifying 
to  our  devotion  to  our  religion.” 

Another  paper  of  the  same  faith  that  argues 
against  the  change  is  The  American  Hebj'ew 
(New  York).  Referring  to  certain  statements 
made  by  Dr.  Krauskopf  in  his  address  it  says: 

“Does  Dr.  Krauskopf  mean  to  tell  us  in  all 
seriousness  that  the  new  movement  has  en¬ 
dowed  Sunday  with  all  the  glory  and  beauty  of 
the  old  Jewish  Sabbath?  Let  him  mark  the 
full  meaning  of  this.  Does  he  himself,  or  does  a 
single  member  of  his  congregation  surround  the 
first  day  of  the  week  with  that  spirit  of  sanctity 
that  marks  it  off  from  the  working  days,  that  is 
becoming  to  the  Sabbath?  When  you  speak  of  the 
Sunday  service  as  a  means  of  reaching  the  people 
who  will  not  or  cannot  attend  service  on  the 


THE  ATTITUDE  OF  MODERN  JUDAISM.  281 

Sabbath,  in  order  to  bring  to  them  the  lessons 
of  religion,  that  is  one  thing;  but  when  a  rabbi 
utters  a  statement  like  the  foregoing,  we  see 
him,  in  our  mind’s  eye,  making  it  with  the 
tongue  within  the  cheek. 

“Nay,  nay,  brother,  talk  not  such  utter  non¬ 
sense;  you  humbug  by  it  no  one  so  much  as 
you  do  yourself.  Of  course,  in  one  way  the  Sun- 
day-Sabbatarians  set  a  good  example  to  many  of 
us  who  are  stupid  enough  to  stick  to  the  old- 
fashioned  day  of  rest;  they  do  not  shop  on  Sun¬ 
day  nor  do  they  market  on  their  new  Sabbath, 
nor  do  they  go  to  matinees,  to  the  Stock  Ex¬ 
change,  or  to  the  ball  match — but  that  is  not 
quite  their  fault.” 


The  Talmud. 


Where  are  now  the  great  and  famous  monarchies  (Egypt, 
Assyria,  Babylon,  Syro-Macedonia,  and  Rome)  which  in  their 
turn  subdued  and  oppressed  the  people  of  God  ?  Are  they  not 
vanished  as  a  dream,  and  not  only  their  power,  but  their  very 
names  lost  in  the  earth  ?  Nay,  not  only  nations  have  been 
punished  for  their  cruelties  to  the  Jews,  but  divine  vengeance 
hath  pursued  even  single  persons  who  have  been  their  persecutors 
and  oppressors.  Besides  many  individual  Jewish  oppressors  who 
came  to  an  untimely  end  may  be  named,  Antiochus  Epiphanes 
and  Herod,  who,  after  having  become  intolerable  to  themselves 
and  their  attendants,  died  in  great  agony;  Nebuchadnezzar,  who 
was  stricken  with  insanity;  Flaccus,  governor  of  Egypt,  who 
was  banished  and  murdered,  and  Caligula,  who  was  also  murdered 
in  the  flower  of  his  age,  after  a  wicked  short  reign.  And  if  such 
hath  been  the  fatal  end  of  the  enemies  and  oppressors  of  the 
Jews,  let  it  serve  as  a  warning  to  all  those  who,  at  any  time  or 
upon  any  occasion,  are  for  raising  a  clamor  and  persecution  against 
them. — Bishop  Newton,  “Dissertations  on  the  Prophecies.  ” 

Because  in  the  world  at  large  there  is  so  little  to  remind  us  of 
Judaism  and  so  much  to  remind  us  of  Christianity,  therefore 
must  we  make  our  homes  Jewish  homes,  full  of  the  associations 
of  our  faith,  reviving  the  old  sentiments,  so  that  the  grand  old 
traditions  will  take  deep  root  in  youthful  hearts,  not  easily  to  be 
torn  up  in  secular  conflict  with  the  world.  See  that  your  chil¬ 
dren  understand  the  vital  tenets  of  their  faith,  that  they  are 
thoroughly  familiar  with  their  own  history,  so  that  they  compre¬ 
hend  the  meaning,  the  importance,  the  privilege  of  their  separa¬ 
tion,  and  then,  instead  of  chafing  against  it,  they  will  welcome 
it.  Our  hope  lies  in  those  who  will  succeed  us,  who  will  take  the 
torch  from  our  hand,  who  will  inherit  the  mission  we  have  but 
indifferently  considered.  This  is  the  age  of  freedom;  this  is 
the  land  of  freedom.  Are  we  Jews  ready  for  it?  Are  we  brave 
enough  to  walk  alone  ?  Can  we  trust  ourselves  ?  Or  must  we 
go  back  to  the  confining  boundaries  of  an  isolated  nationality,  to 
the  galling  disabilities  of  the  Ghetto,  to  the  cramping  legislation 
of  the  Shulchan  Aruch  ?  We  have  survived  persecution;  can  we 
survive  emancipation  ? — Dr.  M.  H.  Harris. 


THE  TALMUD. 


285 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  TALMUD. 

Dr.  Emanuel  Deutsch,  in  that  great  lecture 
delivered  at  the  Midland  Institute,  Birmingham, 
England,  December  7,  1868,  explained  that  the 
Talmud*  is  the  work  which  embodies  the  civil 
and  canonical  law  of  the  Jewish  people;  that  it 
consists  of  the  Mishnah ,  or  text,  and  the  com¬ 
mentary,  or  Gemara;  that  its  contents  have 
reference  not  merely  to  religion,  but  also  to 
philosophy,  medicine,  history,  jurisprudence, 
and  the  various  branches  of  practical  duty ;  that 
it  is,  in  fact,  a  law,  civil  and  criminal,  national 
and  international,  human  and  divine,  forming  a 
kind  of  supplement  to  the  Pentateuch — a  sup¬ 
plement  such  as  it  took  one  thousand  years  of 
a  nation’s  life  to  produce;  and  that  it  is  not 
merely  a  dull  treatise,  but  it  appeals  to  the 
imagination  and  the  feelings,  and  to  all  that  is 

*  Talmud  (“Study,”  from  lamad,  to  learn).  Rabbi  E.  B.  M. 
Browne  tells  the  story  that  after  his  lecture  at  a  Western  Univer¬ 
sity,  one  of  his  hearers  came  to  him  and  said:  “I  came  to  hear 
‘The  Talmud/  in  order  to  know  what  kind  of  mud  it  is,”  confes¬ 
sing  his  utter  ignorance  as  to  the  very  name. 


286 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


noblest  and  purest;  that  between  the  rugged 
bowlders  of  the  law  which  bestrew  the  path  of 
the  Talmud,  there  grow  the  blue  flowers  of 
romance  and  poetry,  in  the  most  Catholic  and 
Eastern  sense.  Parable,  tale,  gnome,  saga — its 
elements  are  taken  from  heaven  and  earth ;  but 
chiefly  and  most  lovingly  from  the  human  heart 
and  from  the  Scripture,  for  every  verse  and 
every  word  in  this  latter  became,  as  it  were,  a 
golden  nail  upon  which  it  hung  its  gorgeous 
tapestries.  But  it  would  be  a  great  mistake  to 
suppose  that  the  poet’s  cunning  had  been  at 
work  in  the  Talmud.  It  was  only  his  heart. 
The  chief  feature  and  charm  of  its  contents  lay 
in  their  utter  naivete.  Taken  up,  as  appeared, 
at  random,  and  told  in  their  simple,  inartistic, 
unconscious  form,  they  touched  the  soul.  But 
nothing  could  be  much  more  distressing  than 
to  attempt  to  take  them  out  of  their  antique 
garb  and  press  them  into  some  kind  of  modern 
fashionable  dress;  or  worse  still,  to  systematize 
and  methodize  them.  It  would  be  as  well  to 
attempt  to  systematize  the  songs  of  the  bird  in 
the  wood,  or  a  mother’s  parting  blessing.  He 
had,  however,  to  endeavor  to  reproduce  a  por¬ 
tion  of  the  contents  of  the  Talmud,  in  their  own 
vague  sequence  and  phraseolgy ;  and  he  should 
confine  himself  to  smaller  productions,  as  par* 


THE  TALMUD. 


287 


bles,  apophthegms,  allegories,  and  the  like  mi¬ 
nute  things,  which  were  most  characteristic, 
and  required  little  explanation. 

The  fundamental  law  of  all  human  and  social 
economy  in  the  Talmud  was  the  utter  and  ab¬ 
solute  equality  of  man.  It  was  pointed  out  that 
man  was  created  alone — not  more  than  one  at 
different  times,  lest  one  should  say  to  another, 
“I  am  of  the  better  or  earlier  stock.”  And  it 
failed  not  to  mention  that  man  was  created  on 
the  last  day,  and  that  even  the  gnat  was  of 
more  ancient  lineage  than  man.  In  a  discus¬ 
sion  which  arose  among  the  doctors  as  to  which 
was  the  most  important  passage  in  the  whole 
Bible,  one  pointed  to  the  verse,  “And  thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.”  The  other 
contradicted  him  and  pointed  to  the  words, 
“And  these  are  the  generations  of  man” — not 
black,  not  white,  not  great,  not  small — but  man. 

Or,  again,  they  pointed  out  the  words,  “And 
these  are  the  ordinances  by  which  men  shall 
live” — not  the  priest,  or  the  Levite — but  men. 
The  law  given  on  Mount  Sinai,  the  masters  said, 
though  emphatically  addressed  to  one  people, 
belong  to  all  humanity.  It  was  not  given  in 
any  king’s  land,  not  in  any  city,  or  inhabited 
spot,  lest  the  other  nations  might  say,  “We 
know  nothing  of  it.”  It  was  given  on  God’s 


288 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


own  highway,  in  the  desert — not  in  the  dark¬ 
ness  and  stillness  of  night,  but  in  plain  day, 
amid  thunder  and  lightning.  And  why  was  it 
given  on  Sinai?  Because  it  is  the  lowliest  and 
the  meekest  of  the  mountains — to  show  that 
God’s  spirit  rests  only  upon  them  that  are  meek 
and  lowly  in  their  hearts.  The  Talmud  taught 
that  religion  was  not  a  thing  of  creed  or  dogma, 
or  faith  merely,  but  of  active  goodness.  Scrip¬ 
ture  said:  “Ye  shall  walk  in  the  words  of  the 
Lord.” 

“But  the  Lord  is  a  consuming  fire — how  can 
man  walk  in  His  way?” 

“By  being,”  they  answered,  “as  He  is — 
merciful,  loving,  long- suffering.” 

Mark  how  on  the  first  page  of  the  Pentateuch 
God  clothed  the  naked — Adam ;  and  on  the  last 
He  buries  the  dead — Moses.  He  heals  the 
sick,  frees  the  captive,  does  good  to  His  ene¬ 
mies,  and  He  is  merciful  both  to  the  living  and 
to  the  dead. 

In  close  connection  with  this  stood  the  re¬ 
lationship  of  men  to  their  neighbors — chiefly  to 
those  beyond  the  pale  of  creed  or  nationality. 
The  Talmud  distinctly  and  strongly  set  its  face 
against  proselytism,  pronouncing  it  to  be  even 
dangerous  to  the  commonwealth.  There  was; 
no  occasion,  it  said,  for  conversion  to  Juda- 


THE  TALMUD. 


289 


ism,  as  long  as  a  man  fulfilled  the  seven  funda¬ 
mental  laws.  Every  man  who  did  so  was  re¬ 
garded  as  a  believer  to  all  intents  and  purposes. 
It  even  went  so  far  as  to  call  every  righteous 
man  an  Israelite.  Distinct  injunctions  were 
laid  down  with  regard  to  proselytes.  They 
were  to  be  discouraged  and  warned  off,  and 
told  that  the  miseries,  privations,  and  persecu¬ 
tions  which  they  wished  to  take  upon  them¬ 
selves  were  unnecessary,  inasmuch  as  all  men 
were  God’s  children,  and  might  inherit  the  here¬ 
after;  but  if  they  persisted,  they  were  to  be 
received,  and  were  ever  afterward  treated  ten¬ 
derly.  They  illustrated  this  by  a  beautiful 
parable  of  a  deer  coming  from  the  forest  among 
a  flock  of  sheep,  and  being  driven  off  at  night 
and  the  gate  shut  against  it,  but  being  after 
many  trials  at  length  received  and  treated  with 
more  tenderness  than  any  of  the  sheep.  Next 
stood  reverence  both  for  age  and  youth.  They 
pointed  out  that  not  merely  the  tables  of  the 
law  which  Moses  brought  down  the  second  time 
from  Sinai,  but  also  those  which  he  broke  in 
his  rage,  were  carefully  placed  in  God’s  taber¬ 
nacle,  though  useless.  Reverence  old  age.  But 
all  their  most  transcendental  love  was  lavished 
on  children.  All  the  verses  of  Scripture  that 
spoke  of  flowers  and  gardens  were  applied  to 


290  JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 

children  and  schools.  “Do  not  touch  mine 
anointed  ones,  and  do  my  prophets  no  harm.” 
“Mine  anointed  ones”  were  school  children, 
and  “my  prophets”  their  teachers. 

The  highest  and  most  exalted  title  which  they 
bestowed  in  their  most  poetical  flights  upon 
God  himself  was  that  of  “Pedagogue  of  man.” 
There  were  droughts  and  the  most  pious  men 
prayed  and  wept  for  rain,  but  none  came.  An 
insignificant-looking  person  at  length  prayed  to 
Him  who  caused  the  wind  to  blow  and  the  rain 
to  fall,  and  instantly  the  heavens  covered  them¬ 
selves  with  clouds,  and  the  rain  fell.  “Who 
are  you,”  they  cried,  “whose  prayers  alone 
have  prevailed?”  And  he  answered:  “I  am  a 
teacher  of  little  children.”  When  God  intended 
to  give  the  law  to  the  people  he  asked  them 
whom  they  would  offer  as  their  guarantees  that 
they  would  keep  it  holy,  and  they  said  Abra¬ 
ham.  God  said:  “Abraham  has  sinned — Isaac, 
Jacob,  Moses  himself — they  have  all  sinned; 
I  cannot  accept  them.”  Then  they  said: 
“May  our  children  be  our  witnesses  and  our 
guarantees.”  And  God  accepted  them;  even 
as  it  is  written  “From  the  mouths  of  the  wee 
babes  has  He  founded  His  empire.”  Indeed  the 
relationship  of  man  to  God  they  could  not  ex¬ 
press  more  pregnantly  than  by  the  most  familiar 


THE  TALMUD. 


291 


words  which  occurred  from  one  end  of  the  Tal¬ 
mud  to  the  other,  “Our  Father  in  Heaven.’’ 

Another  simile  was  that  of  bride  and  bride¬ 
groom.  There  was  once  a  man  who  betrothed 
himself  to  a  beautiful  maiden,  and  then  went 
away  and  the  maiden  waited  and  waited  and  he 
came  not.  Friends  and  rivals  mocked  her,  and 
said,  “he  will  never  come.’’  She  went  into  her 
room,  and  took  out  the  letters  in  which  he  had 
promised  to  be  ever  faithful.  Weeping,  she 
read  them  and  was  comforted.  In  time  he  re¬ 
turned,  and  inquiring  how  she  had  kept  her  faith 
so  long,  she  showed  him  his  letters.  Israel  in 
misery,  in  captivity,  was  mocked  by  the  nations 
for  her  hopes  of  redemption;  but  Israel  went  in 
to  her  schools  and  synagogues  and  took  out  the 
letters,  and  was  comforted.  God  would  in 
time  redeem  her,  and  say:  “How  could  you 
alone  among  all  the  mocking  nations  be  faith¬ 
ful?”  Then  Israel  would  point  to  the  law  and 
answer:  “Had  I  not  your  promise  here?” 

Next  to  women,  angels  were  the  most  fre¬ 
quent  bearers  of  some  of  the  sublimest  and 
most  ideal  notions  in  the  Talmud.  “Under¬ 
neath  the  wings  of  the  seraphim,”  said  the  Tal¬ 
mud,  “are  stretched  the  arms  of  the  divine 
mercy,  ever  ready  to  receive  sinners.”  Every 
word  that  emanated  from  God  was  transformed 


292 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


into  an  angel,  and  every  good  deed  of  man  be¬ 
came  a  guardian  angel  to  him.  On  Friday 
night,  when  the  Jew  left  the  synagogue,  a 
good  angel  and  a  bad  angel  accompanied  him. 
If,  on  entering  the  house,  he  found  the  table 
spread,  the  lamp  lighted,  and  his  wife  and 
children  in  festive  garments,  ready  to  bless  the 
holy  day  of  rest,  the  good  angel  said:  “May  the 
next  Sabbath  and  all  following  ones  be  like 
unto  this;  Peace  unto  this  dwelling — peace!” 
and  the  bad  angel,  against  his  will,  was  com¬ 
pelled  to  say  “Amen.”  If,  on  the  contrary* 
everything  was  in  confusion,  the  bad  angel  re¬ 
joiced,  and  said:  “May  all  your  Sabbaths  and 
week  days  be  like  this,”  while  the  good  angel 
wept  and  said  “Amen.”  According  to  the  Tal¬ 
mud,  when  God  was  about  to  create  man,  great 
clamoring  arose  among  the  heavenly  host. 
Some  said:  “Create,  0  God,  a  being  who  shall 
praise  Thee  on  earth,  even  as  we  sing  Thy  glory 
in  heaven.”  Others  said:  “0  God,  create  no 
more !  Man  will  destroy  the  glorious  harmony 
which  Thou  hast  set  on  earth,  as  in  heaven.” 
0±  a  sudden,  God  turned  to  the  contesting  host 
of  heaven,  and  deep  silence  fell  upon  them  all. 
Then  before  the  throne  of  glory  there  appeared 
bending  the  knee  the  Angel  of  Mercy,  and  he 
prayed,  “0,  Father,  create  man.  He  will  be 


THE  TALMUD. 


293 


Thine  own  noble  image  on  earth.  I  will  fill  his 
heart  with  heavenly  pity  and  sympathy  toward 
all  creatures;  they  will  praise  Thee  through 
him.”  And  there  appeared  the  Angel  of  Peace, 
and  wept:  “0,  God,  man  will  disturb  Thine  own 
peace.  Blood  will  flow;  he  will  invent  war, 
confusion,  horror.  Thy  place  will  be  no  longer 
in  the  midst  of  all  Thy  earthly  works.”  The 
Angel  of  Justice  cried:  “You  will  judge  him, 
God!  He  shall  be  subject  to  my  law,  and  peace 
shall  again  find  a  dwelling-place  on  earth.” 
The  Angel  of  Truth  said:  “Father  of  Truth, 
cease!  With  men  you  create  the  lie.”  Out  of 
the  deep  silence  then  was  heard  the  divine  word : 
“You  shall  go  with  him — you,  mine  own  Seal, 
truth ;  but  you  shall  also  remain  a  denizen  of 
heaven — between  heaven  and  earth  you  shall 
float,  an  everlasting  link  between  both.” 

The  question  was  asked  in  the  Talmud,  why 
children  were  born  with  their  hands  clinched, 
and  men  die  with  their  hands  wide  open;  and 
the  answer  was  that  on  entering  the  world,  man 
desired  to  grasp  everything,  but  when  he  was 
leaving  it  all  slipped  away.  Even  as  a  fox, 
which  saw  a  fine  vineyard,  and  lusted  after  its 
grapes,  but  was  too  fat  to  get  in  through  the 
only  opening  there  was,  until  he  had  fasted 
three  days.  He  then  got  in;  but  having  fed, 


294 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


he  could  not  get  out,  until  he  had  fasted  three 
days  more.  “Poor  and  naked  man  enters  the 
world;  poor  and  naked  does  he  leave.’’  To 
woman  the  Talmud  ascribed  all  the  blessings  of 
the  household.  From  her  emanated  everything 
noble,  wise,  and  true.  It  had  not  words  enough 
to  impress  man  with  the  absolute  necessity  of 
getting  married.  Not  only  was  he  said  to  be 
bereaved  of  peace,  joy,  comfort,  and  faith  with¬ 
out  a  wife,  but  he  was  not  even  called  a  man. 
“Who  is  best  taught?’’  it  asked;  and  the  answer 
is:  “He  who  has  learned  first  from  his  mother.’’ 

Alexander  the  Great  was  repeatedly  spoken 
of  in  the  Talmud.  In  his  travels  in  the  East, 
one  day  he  wandered  to  the  gate  of  Paradise, 
and  knocked.  The  guardian  angel  asked: 
“Who  is  there?” 

“Alexander.” 

“Who  is  Alexander 

“Alexander,  you  know— the  Alexander — 
Alexander  the  Great — conqueror  of  the  world.” 

“W7e  know  him  not — he  cannot  enter  here. 
This  is  the  Lord’s  gate;  only  the  righteous  enter 
here.”  Alexander  begged  something  to  show 
he  had  been  there,  and  a  small  portion  of  a 
skull  was  given  him.  He  took  it  away,  and 
showed  it  contemptuously  to  his  wise  men,  who 
brought  a  pair  of  scales  and  placing  the  bone  in 


THE  TALMUD. 


295 


one,  Alexander  put  some  of  his  silver  and  gold 
against  it  in  the  other;  but  the  silver  and  gold 
“Kicked  the  beam.”  More  and  more  silver 
and  gold  were  put  into  the  scale  and  at  last  all 
his  crown  jewels  and  diadems  were  in,  but  they 
all  flew  upwards  like  feathers  before  the  weight 
of  the  bone.  Then  one  of  the  wise  men  took 
a  grain  of  dust  from  the  ground  and  placing  it 
on  the  bone,  the  scale  went  up.  The  bone  was 
that  which  surrounded  the  eye — and  nothing 
will  ever  satisfy  the  eye,  until  grains  of  dust 
and  ashes  are  placed  upon  it,  down  in  the  grave. 

In  his  travels  Alexander  came  to  Ethiopia, 
and  a  cause  was  decided  in  his  presence  by  the 
king  of  that  country.  A  man  who  had  recently 
purchased  land  found  a  treasure  upon  it,  which 
was  claimed  by  the  seller  of  the  land.  The 
king  reconciled  the  rival  claims  by  suggesting 
that  the  son  of  one  of  the  men  should  marry  the 
daughter  of  the  other,  and  that  the  treasure  be 
given  as  the  dowry.  Alexander  was  moody, 
and  the  King  of  Ethiopia  asked:  “Are  you  dis¬ 
satisfied  with  my  judgment?” 

“Well,”  Alexander  said,  “I  am  not  dissatis¬ 
fied,  I  only  know  we  should  have  judged 
differently  in  our  country.” 

“How?” 

“We  should,  of  course,  have  taken  the  treas- 


296 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


ure  at  once  into  the  king’s  exchequer,  and  both 
those  men  would  have  been  beheaded  on  the 
spot.”  The  King  of  Ethiopia  said: 

“Allow  me  to  ask  a  question.  Does  the  sun 
ever  shine  in  your  country?” 

“Of  course.” 

“And  does  it  ever  rain?” 

“Certainly.” 

“Have  you  any  cattle?” 

“Yes.” 

“Then  that  is  the  reason  why  the  sun  shines, 
and  the  rain  rains — it  can’t  be  for  you.” 

The  lecturer  concluded  by  remarking  that 
what  he  had  been  able  to  bring  before  the  au¬ 
dience  proved,  as  it  were,  but  a  drop  in  a  vast 
ocean  of  the  Talmud — that  strange,  wild,  weird 
ocean,  with  its  leviathans,  and  its  wrecks  of 
golden  argosies,  and  with  its  forlorn  bells  that 
send  up  their  dreamy  sounds  ever  and  anon, 
while  the  fisherman  bends  upon  his  oar,  and 
starts  and  listens,  and  perchance  the  tears  may 
come  into  his  eyes. 

GEMS  FROM  THE  TALMUD. 

The  following  specimens  from  the  oft-ma¬ 
ligned  Talmud  were  all  literally  translated  by 
Emanuel  Deutsch,  from  the  Talmud  itself: 

“Be  thou  the  cursed,  not  he  who  curses.  Be 


THE  TALMUD. 


297 


of  them  that  are  persecuted,  not  of  them  that 
persecute.  Look  at  Scripture;  there  is  not  a 
single  bird  more  persecuted  than  the  dove,  yet 
God  has  chosen  her  to  be  offered  up  on  his 
altar.  The  bull  is  hunted  by  the  lion,  the  sheep 
by  the  wolf,  the  goat  by  the  tiger.  And  God 
said:  ‘Bring  me  a  sacrifice,  not  from  them  that 
persecute  but  from  them  that  are  persecuted.’ 
We  read  (Ex.  xvii.  11)  that  while  in  the  contest 
with  Amalek,  Moses  lifted  up  his  arms,  Israel 
prevailed.  Did  Moses’  hands  make  war  or 
break  war?  But  this  is  to  tell  you  that  as  long 
as  Israel  are  looking  upward  and  humbling 
their  hearts  before  their  Father  which  is  in 
heaven,  they  prevail;  if  not,  they  fall.  In  the 
same  way  you  find  (Num.  xxi.  9),  ‘And  Moses 
made  a  serpent  of  brass,  and  put  it  upon  a  pole; 
and  it  came  to  pass,  that  if  a  serpent  had  bitten 
any  man,  when  he  beheld  the  serpent  of  brass, 
he  lived.’  Dost  think  that  a  serpent  killeth  or 
giveth  life?  But  as  long  as  Israel  are  looking 
upward  to  their  Father  which  is  in  heaven  they 
will  live;  if  not,  they  will  die.  ‘Has  God  pleas¬ 
ure  in  the  meat  and  blood  of  sacrifices?’  asks 
the  prophet.  No;  He  has  not  so  much  ordained 
as  permitted  them.  It  is  for  yourselves  he 
says,  not  for  me  that  you  offer.  Like  a  king, 
who  sees  his  son  carousing  daily  with  all  man- 


298 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


ner  of  evil  companions.  ‘You  shall  henceforth 
eat  and  drink  entirely  at  your  will  at  my  own 
table,’  he  says. 

“They  offered  sacrifices  to  demons  and  devils, 
for  they  love  sacrificing,  and  could  not  do  with¬ 
out  it.  And  the  Lord  said:  ‘Bring  your  offer¬ 
ings  to  Me,  you  shall  then  at  least  offer  to  the 
true  God.  Scripture  ordains  that  the  Hebrew 
slave  who  ‘loves’  his  bondage,  shall  have  his 
ear  pierced  against  the  doorpost.  Why?  be¬ 
cause  it  is  that  ear  which  heard  on  Sinai,  ‘They 
are  My  servants,  not  servant’s  servants.’  And 
this  man  voluntary  throws  away  his  precious 
freedom — Tierce  his  ear!  He  who  sacrifices  a 
whole  offering  shall  be  rewarded  for  a  whole 
offering,  he  who  offers  a  burnt- offering,  shall 
have  the  reward  of  a  burnt-offering,  but  he  who 
offers  humility  unto  God  and  man,  shall  be  re¬ 
warded  with  a  reward  as  if  he  had  offered  all 
the  sacrifices  in  the  world.’  The  child  loves  its 
mother  more  than  its  father.  It  fears  its  father 
more  than  its  mother.  See  how  the  Scriptures 
make  the  father  precede  the  mother  in  the  in¬ 
junction.  ‘Thou  shalt  love  thy  father  and 
mother,’  and  the  mother,  when  it  says,  ‘Honor 
thy  father  and  mother!’ 

“Bless  God  for  the  good  as  well  as  the 
evil.  When  you  hear  of  a  death  say:  ‘Blessed 


THE  TALMUD. 


299 


is  the  righteous  judge.’  Even  when  the  gates 
of  heaven  are  shut  to  prayer,  they  are  open  to 
those  of  tears.  Prayer  is  Israel’s  only  weapon, 
a  weapon  inherited  from  its  fathers,  a  weapon 
tried  in  a  thousand  battles.  When  the  right¬ 
eous  dies,  it  is  the  earth  that  loses.  The  lost 
jewel  will  always  be  a  jewel,  but  the  possessor 
who  has  lost  it — well  may  he  weep.  Life  is  a 
passing  shadow,  says  the  Scripture.  Is  it  the 
shadow  of  a  tower,  of  a  tree?  A  shadow  that 
prevails  for  awhile?  No,  it  is  the  shadow  of  a 
bird  in  its  flight — away  flies  the  bird  and  there 
is  neither  bird  nor  shadow.  Repent  one  day 
before  thy  death.  There  was  a  king  who  bade 
all  his  servants  to  a  great  repast,  but  did  not 
indicate  the  hour;  some  went  home  and  put  on 
their  best  garments  and  stood  at  the  door  of 
the  palace;  others  said  there  is  ample  time,  the 
king  will  let  us  know  beforehand.  But  the 
king  summoned  them  of  a  sudden;  and  those 
that  came  in  their  best  garments  were  well  re¬ 
ceived,  but  the  foolish  ones,  who  came  in  their 
slovenliness,  were  turned  away  in  disgrace. 
Repent  to-day,  lest  to-morrow  ye  might  be 
summoned.  The  aim  and  end  of  all  wisdom 
are  repentance  and  good  works.  Even  the 
most  righteous  shall  not  attain  to  so  high  a 
place  in  heaven  as  the  truly  repentant.  The 


300 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW, 


reward  of  good  works  is  like  dates;  sweet  and 
ripening  late.  The  dying  benediction  of  a  sage 
to  his  disciples  was:  ‘I  pray  for  you  that  the 
fear  of  heaven  maybe  as  strong  upon  you  as  the 
fear  of  man.  You  avoid  sin  before  the  face  of 
the  latter;  avoid  it  before  the  face  of  the  All- 
seeing.’  ‘If  your  God  hates  idolatry,  why  does 
he  not  destroy  it?’  a  heathen  asked.  And 
they  answered  him:  Behold,  they  worship  the 
sun,  the  .moon,  the  stars;  would  you  have  him 
destroy  this  beautiful  world  for  the  sake  of  the 
foolish?  If  your  God  is  a  ‘friend  of  the  poor,’ 
asked  another,  why  does  he  not  support  them? 
Their  case,  a  sage  answered,  is  left  in  our 
hands,  that  we  may  thereby  acquire  merits  and 
forgiveness  of  sin.  But  what  a  merit  it  is !  the 
other  replied ;  suppose  I  am  angry  with  one  of 
my  slaves,  and  forbid  him  food  and  drink,  and 
some  one  goes  and  gives  it  him  furtively,  shall 
I  be  much  pleased!  Not  so,  the  other  replied. 
Suppose  you  are  wroth  with  your  only  son  and 
imprison  him  without  food,  and  some  good  man 
has  pity  on  the  child,  and  saves  him  from  the 
pangs  of  hunger,  would  you  be  so  very  angry 
with  the  man?  And  we,  if  we  are  called  ser¬ 
vants  of  God,  are  also  called  his  children.  He 
who  has  more  learning  than  good  works  is  like 
a  tree  with  many  branches  and  few  roots,  which 


THE  TALMUD. 


301 


the  first  wind  throws  on  its  face;  while  he 
whose  works  are  greater  than  his  knowledge  is 
like  a  tree  with  many  roots  and  fewer  branches, 
but  which  all  the  winds  of  heaven  cannot  up¬ 
root. 

“Love  your  wife  like  yourself,  honor  her 
more  than  yourself.  Whosoever  lives  unmar¬ 
ried  lives  without  joy,  without  comfort,  with¬ 
out  blessing.  Descend  a  step  in  choosing  a 
wife.  If  thy  wife  is  small,  bend  down  to  her 
and  whisper  into  her  ear.  He  who  forsakes  the 
love  of  his  youth,  God’s  altar  weeps  for  him. 
He  who  sees  his  wife  die  before  him  has,  as  it 
were,  been  present  at  the  destruction  of  the 
sanctuary  itself — around  him  the  world  growTs 
dark.  It  is  women  alone  through  whom  God’s 
blessings  are  vouchsafed  to  a  house.  She 
teaches  the  children,  speeds  the  husband  to  the 
place  of  worship  and  instruction,  welcomes 
him  when  he  returns,  keeps  the  house  godly 
and  pure,  and  God’s  blessings  rest  upon  all 
these  things.  He  who  marries  for  money,  his 
children  shall  be  a  curse  to  him.  The  house 
that  does  not  open  to  the  poor  shall  open  to  a 
physician.  The  birds  in  the  air  even  despise 
the  miser.  He  who  gives  charity  in  secret  is 
greater  than  Moses  himself.  Honor  the  sons  of 
the  poor,  it  is  they  who  bring  science  into 


302 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


splendor.  Let  the  honor  of  thy  neighbor  be  to 
thee  like  thine  own.  Rather  be  thrown  into  a 
fiery  furnace  than  bring  any  one  to  public 
shame.  Hospitality  is  the  most  important  part 
of  divine  worship.  There  are  three  crowns:  of 
the  law,  the  priesthood,  the  kingship;  but  the 
crown  of  a  good  name  is  greater  than  them  all. 
Iron  breaks  the  stone,  fire  melts  iron,  water  ex¬ 
tinguishes  fire,  the  clouds  drink  up  the  water, 
a  storm  drives  away  the  clouds,  man  withstands 
the  storm,  fear  unmans  man,  wine  dispels  fear, 
sleep  drives  away  wine,  and  death  sweeps  all 
away — even  sleep.  But  Solomon  the  wise  says : 
‘Charity  saves  from  death.’  How  can  you  escape 
sin?  Think  of  three  things:  whence  thou 
comest,  whither  thou  goest,  and  to  whom  thou 
wilt  have  to  account  for  all  thy  deeds;  even  to 
the  King  of  Kings,  the  All  Holy,  praised  be  He. 
Four  shall  not  enter  Paradise:  the  scoffer,  the 
liar,  the  hypocrite,  and  the  slanderer.  To 
slander  is  to  murder.  The  cock  and  the  owl 
both  await  the  daylight.  The  light  says  the 
cock,  brings  delight  to  me,  but  what  are  you 
waiting  for?  When  the  thief  has  no  opportun¬ 
ity  for  stealing,  he  considers  himself  an  honest 
man.  If  thy  friends  agree  in  calling  thee  an 
ass,  go  and  get  a  halter  around  thee.  Thy 
friend  has  a  friend,  and  thy  friend’s  friend  has 


THE  TALMUD. 


303 


a  friend:  be  discreet.  The  dog  sticks  to  you 
on  account  of  the  crumbs  in  thy  pocket.  The 
camel  wanted  to  have  horns,  and  they  took 
away  his  ears.  The  soldiers  fight,  and  the 
kings  are  the  heroes.  The  thief  invokes  God 

while  he  breaks  into  the  house.  The  woman 

/ 

of  sixty  will  run  after  music  like  one  of  six. 
After  the  thief  runs  the  theft;  after  the  beggar 
poverty.  While  thy  foot  is  shod,  smash  the 
thorn.  When  the  ox  is  down,  many  are  the 
butchers.  Descend  a  step  in  choosing  a  wife, 
mount  a  step  in  choosing  a  friend.  If  there  is 
anything  bad  about  you,  say  it  yourself.  Luck 
makes  rich,  luck  makes  wise.  Beat  the  gods, 
and  the  priests  will  tremble.  Were  it  not  for  the 
existence  of  passions,  no  one  would  build  a 
house,  marry  a  wife,  beget  children,  or  do  any 
work.  The  sun  will  go  down  all  by  himself, 
wdthout  your  assistance.  Fools  are  no  proof. 
No  man  is  to  be  made  responsible  for  words 
which  he  utters  in  his  grief.  One  eats,  another 
says  grace.  He  who  is  ashamed  will  not  easily 
commit  sin.  There  is  a  great  difference  be 
tween  him  who  is  ashamed  before  his  own  self 
and  him  who  is  only  ashamed  before  others.  It 
is  a  good  sign  in  man  to  be  capable  of  being 
ashamed.  One  contrition  in  man’s  heart  is  bet¬ 
ter  than  many  flagellations.  If  our  ancestors 


304 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


were  like  angels,  we  are  like  men;  if  our  ances¬ 
tors  were  like  men,  we  are  like  asses.  Do  not 
live  near  a  pious  fool.  If  you  wish  to  hang 
yourself,  choose  a  big  tree.  Rather  eat  onions 
and  sit  in  the  shadow,  and  do  not  eat  geese  and 
poultry  if  it  makes  thy  heart  uneasy  within 
thee.  A  small  stater  (coin)  in  a  large  jar  makes 
a  big  noise.  A  myrtle,  even  in  a  desert,  re¬ 
mains  a  myrtle.  When  the  pitcher  falls  upon 
the  stone,  woe  unto  the  pitcher;  when  the  stone 
falls  upon  the  pitcher,  woe  unto  the  pitcher; 
whatever  befalls,  woe  unto  the  pitcher.  Even 
if  the  bull  have  his  head  deep  in  the  trough, 
hasten  upon  the  roof,  and  drag  the  ladder  after 
you.  Get  your  living  by  skinning  carcases  in 
the  street  if  you  cannot  otherwise,  and  do  not 
say,  I  am  a  priest,  I  am  a  great  man;  this  work 
would  not  befit  my  dignity.  Youth  is  a  garland 
of  roses,  age  is  a  crown  of  thorns.  Use  a  noble 
vase  even  for  one  day — let  it  break  to-morrow. 
The  last  thief  is  hanged  first.  Teach  thy 
tongue  to  say,  I  do  not  know.  The  heart  of  our 
first  ancestors  was  as  large  as  the  gate  of  the 
temple,  that  of  the  later  ones  like  that  of  the 
next  large  one;  ours  is  like  the  eye  of  a  needle. 
Drink  not,  and  you  will  not  sin.  Not  what  you 
say  about  yourself,  but  what  others  say.  Not 
the  place  honors  the  man,  but  the  man  the 


THE  TALMUD. 


305 


place.  The  cat  and  rat  make  peace  over  a  car¬ 
cass.  A  dog  away  from  his  native  kennel  dares 
not  bark  for  seven  years.  He  who  walks  daily 
over  his  estates  finds  a  little  coin  each  time. 
He  who  humiliates  himself  will  be  lifted  up;  he 
who  raises  himself  up  will  be  humiliated. 
Whosoever  runs  after  greatness,  greatness  runs 
way  from  him ;  he  who  runs  away  from  great¬ 
ness,  greatness  follows  him.  He  who  curbs 
his  wrath,  his  sins  will  be  forgiven.  Whoso¬ 
ever  does  not  persecute  them  that  persecute 
him,  whosoever  takes  an  offense  in  silence,  he 
who  does  good  because  of  love,  he  who  is  cheer¬ 
ful  under  his  suffering — they  are  the  friends  of 
God,  and  of  them  the  Scripture  says,  ‘And  they 
shall  shine  forth  as  does  the  sun  at  noonday.’ 
Pride  is  like  idolatry.  Commit  a  sin  twice,  and 
you  will  think  it  perfectly  allowable.  When  the 
end  of  a  man  is  come  everybody  lords  it  over 
him.  While  our  love  was  strong,  we  lay  on  the 
edge  of  a  sword ;  now  it  is  no  longer  strong,  a 
sixty -yard- wide  bed  is  too  narrow  for  us.  A 
Galilean  said:  ‘When  the  shepherd  is  angry 
with  his  flock  he  appoints  to  it  a  blind-wether.’ 
The  day  is  short  and  the  work  is  great;  but  the 
laborers  are  idle,  though  the  reward  be  great, 
and  the  master  of  the  work  presses.  It  is  not 
incumbent  upon  thee  to  complete  the  work:  but 


306  JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 

thou  must  not  therefore  cease  from  it.  If  thou 
hast  worked  much,  great  shall  be  thy  reward: 
for  the  master  who  employed  thee  is  faithful  in 
his  payment.  But  know  that  the  true  reward  is 
not  of  this  world.” 


.  Prejudice  Against  the  Jew. 


Jews  claim  to  be  measured  by  the  standard  of  other  com¬ 
munities.  They  do  not  covet  undue  commendation;  but  they 
emphatically  protest  against  depreciation.  They  do  not  desire  to 
be  thought  better  than  they  actually  are.  Jews  are  but  human 
creatures,  and,  therefore,  like  other  human  creatures,  they  are  of 
necessity  subject  to  the  infirmities,  frailties  and  errors  common 
to  humanity.  They  desire  to  be  spoken  of  as  they  are,  that 
nothing  in  their  character  and  conduct  shall  be  extenuated,  nor 
aught  set  down  to  them  in  malice.  Having  endured  from  the 
wickedness  and  injustice  of  mankind  more  than  eighteen  centu¬ 
ries  of  suffering ;  having,  more  particularly  in  the  barbarous 
Middle  Ages,  been  subjected  to  every  conceivable  phase  of  wrong 
and  misery ;  to  oppressive  and  restrictive  laws ;  to  usurious  im¬ 
posts  from  royal  and  noble  robbers;  to  the  exceptional  disad¬ 
vantage  of  being  forced  for  many  ages  to  pursue,  in  order  to  sus¬ 
tain  life,  many  avocations  calculated  to  degrade  and  depress  the 
human  character,  it  should  strike  all  men  of  an  impartial  and  un¬ 
fettered  judgment,  who  reflect  seriously  on  the  subject  and  take 
into  unprejudiced  consideration  the  tremendous  post-biblical 
history  of  the  Jewish  nation,  as  bordering  almost  on  the  miracu¬ 
lous,  that  modern  Jews  should  have  emerged  from  so  terrible 
a  state  of  racial  adversity  and  degradation  with  so  bright  and 
promising  an  aspect  as  they  actually  present.  None  but  a 
divinely  protected  people  could  have  done  so !  It  is  an  unanswer¬ 
able  demonstration  to  persistent  traducers  of  the  Jewish  people 
that  they  are  an  indestructible  race,  and  destined,  moreover,  to 
develop  in  the  undefined  future,  the  yet  unrealized  glorious  de¬ 
signs  of  the  Eternal. 

To  crush,  much  less  to  extirpate,  the  Jews,  a  people  whom 
God  graciously  selected  from  all  other  nations  as  ‘  ‘  His  peculiar 
treasure  ” — sinful  though  they  have  been — has  repeatedly  been 
proved  by  the  experience  of  more  than  eighteen  centuries  to  be 
impossible !— Charles  Kensington  Salaman. 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW. 


309 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW. 

The  Jew  has  given  to  the  world  the  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  only  true  and  living  God.  He  has 
given  Moses,  who  in  the  twelve  United  States 
of  Israel  gave  to  the  world  the  first  Republic, 
and  whose  laws  after  thirty-three  hundred  years 
still  form  the  basis  of  the  civilized  world's  juris¬ 
prudence.  Our  Bible,  both  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments,  were  written  by  Jews.  What 
would  the  world  have  been  without  the  Bible? 
The  countries  which  are  indisputably  the  fore¬ 
most  and  most  enlightened  among  the  nations 
are  Bible  nations.  Where  the  Bible  prevails  in¬ 
telligence  rules.  In  every  country  where  the 
Bible  does  not  rule  you  find  man  in  a  semi-bar¬ 
barous  condition.  The  most  highly  civilized 
and  most  intelligent  people,  the  most  just  and 
reasonable  laws,  are  to  be  found  only  in  those 
countries  where  the  Jewish  Bible  rules.  Where 
there  is  no  Bible  there  is  no  liberty.  To  it  we 
owe  more  for  our  liberty  and  civilization  than  to 


310 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


any  other  source  or  power.  Ours  is  the  only 
flag  that  has  in  reality  written  upon  it :  “  Liberty, 
Fraternity,  Equality,”  and  this  great  Republic 
was  founded  by  Bible  believers.  This  book  of  the 
Jews,  translated  1604-11,  spread  through  England 
and  inspired  the  revolt  against  Charles  I.  in  1642. 
Its  “To  your  tents,  0,  Israel,”  quickened  the 
Puritans  into  action,  and  its  inspiration  caused 
them  to  ride  into  battle  singing  its  psalms.  It 
was  the  Bible  which  lifted  the  people  of  Europe 
up  to  a  civilized  condition  and  made  nations  of 
them.  All  the  beneficent  changes  in  the  world 
have  occurred  under  the  dominion  of  the  Bible. 
The  Reformation,  one  of  the  sublimesfc  uprisings 
in  the  whole  history  of  the  human  race,  which 
developed  the  human  mind,  promoted  civiliza¬ 
tion,  liberalized  men,  destroyed  in  a  measure 
superstition,  revolutionized  religious  belief  and 
changed  the  forms  of  governments,  was  the  out¬ 
growth  of  the  study  of  the  Bible,  the  philosoph¬ 
ical  writings  and  the  teachings  of  the  Spanish, 
Italian  and  Sicilian  universities  whose  teachers 
were  Jews  or  pupils  of  the  Jews,  the  Arabs. 

Liberty  finds  her  only  place  of  abode  in  Bible 
countries.  It  thrives  upon  the  Bible.  Its  sus¬ 
tenance  is  the  Bible.  Liberty  worships  at  its 
august  shrine  and  bows  with  imperial  grandeur 
before  its  majestic  throne.  Mark  what  even 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW.  311 

Theodore  Parker,  as  truthfully  as  strangely 
from  his  view-point,  says  on  this  subject:  “The 
literature  of  Greece,  which  goes  up  like  incense 
from  that  land  of  temples  and  heroic  deeds,  has 
not  half  the  influence  of  this  book  from  a  nation 
alike  despised  in  ancient  and  modern  times.  It 
is  read  in  all  the  tens  of  thousands  of  pulpits  of 
our  land.  In  all  the  temples  of  Christendom  is 
its  voice  lifted  up  week  by  week.  The  sun 
never  sets  on  its  gleaming  pages.  It  goes 
equally  to  the  cottage  of  the  plain  man  and  the 
palace  of  the  king.  It  is  woven  into  the  litera¬ 
ture  of  the  world  and  colors  the  talk  of  the 
street.  The  bark  of  the  merchant  cannot  sail 
the  sea  without  it;  no  ship  of  war  goes  to  con¬ 
flict  but  the  Bible  is  there.  It  enters  men’s 
closets,  mingles  in  all  the  griefs  and  cheerful¬ 
ness  of  life.  The  affianced  maiden  prays  God 
in  Scripture  for  help  in  her  new  duties;  men  are 
married  by  Scripture.  The  Bible  attends  them 
in  their  sickness  and  when  the  fever  of  the 
world  is  on  them.  The  aching  head  finds  a  softer 
pillow  when  the  Bible  lies  underneath.  The 
mariner  escaping  from  shipwreck  clutches  this 
first  of  his  treasures,  and  keeps  it  sacred  to 
God.  It  goes  with  the  peddler  in  his  crowded 
pack ;  cheers  him  at  eventide  when  he  sits  down 
dusty  and  fatigued ;  brightens  the  freshness  of 


312 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


his  morning  face.  It  blesses  us  when  we  are 
born,  gives  names  to  half  Christendom,  rejoices 
with  us,  has  sympathy  for  our  mourning,  tem¬ 
pers  our  grief  to  finer  issues.  It  is  the  better 
part  of  our  sermons.  It  lifts  man  above  him¬ 
self;  our  best  of  uttered  prayers  are  in  its 
storied  speech,  wherewith  our  fathers  and  our 
patriarchs  prayed.  The  timid  man  about  awak¬ 
ing  from  this  dream  of  life  looks  through  the 
glass  of  Scripture  and  his  eye  grows  bright; 
he  does  not  fear  to  stand  alone,  to  tread  the 
way  unknown  and  distant,  to  take  the  death- 
angel  by  the  hand,  and  bid  farewell  to  wife  and 
babes  and  home.  Men  rest  on  this  their  dearest 
hopes.  It  tells  them  of  God  and  of  His  blessed 
Son — of  earthly  duties  and  of  heavenly  rest.” 

Thank  God  for  the  Bible !  Thank  God  for  the 
Jews  who  carried  the  Bible  to  us ! 

JESUS  A  JEW. 

In  the  language  of  Rabbi  Joseph  Krauskopf, 
“Jesus,  who  is  worshipped  by  one-half  of  the 
civilized  world  as  the  saviour  of  mankind,  as 
the  Prince  of  Peace,  who  came  on  earth  to  end 
all  strife  and  discord,  to  eradicate  all  wrong 
from  the  hearts  of  men,  and  to  plant  in  its 
stead  universal  peace  and  eternal  good  will— this 
Jesus,  who  commands  such  veneration  the 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW.  313 

whole  world  over,  who  came  on  earth  with  so 
noble  a  mission,  whose  natal  day  is  celebrated 
oven  after  the  lapse  of  eighteen  centuries  with 
so  much  joyousness,  the  breathing  of  whose 
very  name  casts  a  spell  of  holiness  over  the 
human  heart,  and  the  story  of  whose  life  is  an 
inspiration  to  the  despairing,  a  light  to  the 
erring,  a  comfort  to  the  sorrowing,  a  rest  to  the 
heavy-laden — this  Jesus  was:  A  Jew.” 

DID  THE  JEWS  CRUCIFY  CHRIST? 

The  Irishman  who  whipped  the  Jew,  when 
asked  why  he  did  so,  replied:  “That  man,  is  a 
Jew.” 

“Well,  what  of  that?” 

“The  Jews,”  replied  the  Irishman,  “killed 
Christ.” 

“Yes,  but  that  was  more  than  eighteen  hun¬ 
dred  years  ago.” 

“Well,  never  mind,”  said  the  Irishman,  “I 
only  heard  of  it  to-day.”  A  similar  intellectual 
narrowness  is  the  average  mark  of  our  boasted 
oulture.  The  unhappy  actors  in  that  scene  were 
both  Jews  and  Gentiles.  In  the  light  of  orthodox 
Christian  teaching  the  Jews  had  no  option  in  the 
matter.  The  shadow  of  doom  was  upon  them 
from  the  beginning  of  days  and  the  growing 
sense  of  this  truth  ought,  among  fair-minded 


314  JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 

Christians,  who  believe  so,  make  Jewish  blame 
for  the  crucifixion  a  dead  issue. 

The  rulers  who  were  Romans,  and  not  the  lead¬ 
ers  of  the  Jews,  were  responsible  for  the  cruci¬ 
fixion  of  Christ,  but  in  any  case  how  could  it 
be  the  act  of  the  entire  nation?  The  Jews  were 
then  as  now  scattered  throughout  the  known 
world.  It  is  related  that  when  Sir  Moses  Monte- 
fiore  was  taunted  by  a  political  opponent  with  the 
memory  of  Calvary  and  described  him  as  one  who 
sprang  from  the  murderers  who  crucified  the 
world’s  Redeemer,  the  next  morning  the  Jewish 
philanthropist,  whom  Christendom  has  learned 
to  honor,  called  upon  his  assailant,  and  showed 
him  the  record  of  his  ancestors  which  had  been 
kept  for  two  thousand  years,  and  which  showed 
that  their  home  had  been  in  Spain  for  two  hun¬ 
dred  years  before  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  born! 

The  common  people  heard  Christ  gladly. 
The  multitude  writhing  beneath  the  Roman 
yoke  desired  to  take  him  by  force  and  make 
him  king,  and  when  at  last  through  the  treach¬ 
ery  of  his  own  disciple  he  was  arrested  by  the 
Romans  at  midnight,  and  after  a  hurried  and 
illegal*  trial,  during  which  the  mob  was  per- 


*  The  trial  of  Jesus,  as  described  in  the  Gospel,  is  wholly  illegal 
from  the  standpoint  of  Jewish  procedure  in  criminal  law.  It 
was  illegal  because  held  in  the  house  of  Caiaphas,  the  high- 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW. 


315 


suaded  to  cry  for  his  blood,  by  nine  o’clock  the 
next  morning  he  was  crucified  upon  a  Roman 
cross.  The  three  thousand  who  believed  in  a 
single  day  on  Pentecost,  and  the  great  multitude 
of  priests  who  were  obedient  to  the  faith  were 
Jews.  All  the  apostles  were  Jews.  The  Tem¬ 
ple  and  the  synagogues  were  the  first  preaching 
places.  Christianity  was  planted  in  Europe  and 
Asia  by  Jews.  In  the  language  of  Benjamin 

priest.  All  trials  could  be  held  only  in  the  regular  courtroom  in 
the  precincts  of  the  Temple,  called  “  Lischath  Hagazzith.”  The 
trial  was  held  at  night.  No  trial,  according  to  Jewish  law, 
could  be  held  at  night.  In  the  Gospel  account,  there  is  no  record 
of  the  inspiring  and  beautiful  charge  to  witness  in  a  criminal 
case,  as  prescribed  in  the  Mishna,  or  code-book,  to  remind  them 
of  the  awful  solemnity  of  such  an  occasion  as  testifying  against 
a  man’ s  life. 

“The  care  taken  of  human  life  was  extreme  indeed.  The 
judges  of  capital  offences  had  to  fast  all  day,  nor  was  the  sentence 
executed  on  the  day  of  the  verdict,  but  it  was  once  more  subjected 
to  scrutiny  of  the  Sanhedrin  the  next  day.” 

There  is  no  record  in  the  Gospel  account  of  the  trial  of  Jesus 
of  any  ‘  ‘care  taken  of  human  life” — for  all  was  hastily  done  or 
it  would  not  have  been  done  in  the  night.  Nor  did  the  judges 
fast.  Worse  breach  still  of  Jewish  law  and  practice,  the 
sentence  was  executed  on  the  same  day,  for  Friday  began  at  sun¬ 
set  on  Thursday,  just  as  Sabbath  began  on  Friday  evening.  And 
the  sentence  was  not  subjected  to  scrutiny  by  the  Sanhedrin  a 
second  time.  Indeed,  it  is  impossible  that  it  was  subjected  to 
the  Sanhedrin  at  all,  for  how  could  all  the  members  have  been 
assembled  in  the  night? 

No  Jew  was  ever  executed  on  the  eve  of  a  Festival.  Jesus 
was  executed  by  the  Romans  on  the  eve  of  Passover. 

Crucifixion  is  an  illegal  method  of  death  penalty  according  to 
Jewish  law.  It  was  the  Roman  method  of  punishment.  Jewish 
law  recognizes  four  methods  of  capital  punishment.  Crucifixion 
is  not  one.  — H.  Pereira  Mendes. 


316 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


Disraeli:  “It  is,  no  doubt,  to  be  deplored  that 
seven  millions  of  the  Jewish  race  should  persist 
in  believing  only  a  part  of  their  religion ;  but 
this  is  largely  owing  to  the  nature  of  the  perse¬ 
cution  they  received.  When  the  great  mass  of 
the  Jews,  scattered  throughout  the  world,  first 
ever  heard  of  Christianity,  it  appeared  to  be  a 
Gentile  religion,  accompanied  by  idolatrous 
practices.  And  afterward,  when  Romans  and 
Spaniards  were  converted  to  Christianity,  all 
that  the  Jews  in  those  nations  knew  of  Chris¬ 
tianity  was,  that  it  was  a  religion  of  fire  and 
sword,  and  that  one  of  its  first  duties  was  to 
avenge  some  mysterious  and  inexplicable  crime 
which  had  been  committed  years  ago  by  some 
unheard-of  ancestors  of  theirs  in  an  unknown 
land.  These  people  had  never  heard  of  Christ. 
What  they  had  heard  from  their  savage  com¬ 
panions,  and  the  Italian  priesthood  which  acted 
on  them,  was  that  there  was  good  tidings  for  all 
the  world  except  Israel;  and  that  Israel,  for  the 
commission  of  a  great  crime  of  which  they  had 
never  heard,  and  could  not  comprehend,  was  to 
be  plundered,  massacred,  hewn  to  pieces,  and 
burned  alive  in  the  name  of  Christ,  and  for  the 
sake  of  Christianity.  Is  it,  therefore,  wonder¬ 
ful  that  a  great  portion  of  the  Jewish  race 
should  not  believe  in  the  most  important  por- 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW.  317 

tion  of  the  Jewish  religion?’ ’  But  suppose 
Jews  did  help  Christ’s  death,  is  it  fair  to  lay 
the  deed  of  a  few  of  his  ancestors  against  the 
Jew  and  his  descendants  down  to  the  sixtieth 
generation?  Would  the  Jews  have  put  Jesus 
Christ  to  death  had  they  believed  Him  to  be  the 
Messiah?  Hear  Paul:  “Which  none  of  the 
princes  of  the  world  knew;  for,  had  they 
known  it  they  would  not  have  crucified  the 
Lord  of  glory.’’ 

Listen  to  Jesus  on  the  cross:  “Father,  forgive 
them  (the  Homans  and  Jews  alike),  for  they 
know  not  what  they  do.”  Is  it  not  time  that 
we  forgive  and  forget  what  Christ  forgave  eight¬ 
een  hundred  years  ago?  The  Jew  rejects  Christ, 
but  believes  in  the  Messiah.  Who  shall  say  now 
that  his  faith,  like  Abraham's,  shall  not  be 
“accounted  unto  him  for  righteousness?’’ 

Can  we  wonder  when  we  read  how  the  blood¬ 
thirsty  fanatics  and  tyrants  of  so-called  Chris¬ 
tendom,  who  had  never  learned  the  doctrine 
that  Jesus  taught,  scattered  and  slaughtered, 
hunted  and  hated,  banished  and  robbed  the 
Jews,  can  we  wonder  that  the  latter  refused  to 
embrace  a  religion  the  representatives  of  which 
instigated  and  committed  the  crimes  and  bar¬ 
barities  which  stain  the  pages  of  history.  To 
quote  Benjamin  Disraeli  again : 


318 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


“Perhaps,  in  this  enlightened  age,  as  his  mind 
expands,  and  he  takes  a  comprehensive  view  of 
this  period  of  progress,  the  pupil  of  Moses  may 
ask  himself  whether  all  the  princes  of  the 
house  of  David  have  done  so  much  for  the  Jews 
as  the  prince  who  was  crucified  on  Calvary. 
Had  it  not  been  for  Him,  the  Jews  would  have 
been  comparatively  unknown,  or  known  only  as 
a  high  Oriental  caste  which  had  lost  its  country. 
Has  not  he  made  their  history  the  most  famous 
history  in  the  world?  Has  not  he  hung  up  their 
laws  in  every  temple?  Has  not  he  avenged  the 
victims  of  Titus  and  conquered  the  Caesars? 
What  successes  did  they  anticipate  from  their 
Messiah?  The  wildest  dreams  of  their  rabbins 
have  been  far  exceeded.  Has  not  Jesus  con¬ 
quered  Europe  and  changed  its  name  into 
Christendom?  All  countries  that  refuse  the 
cross  wither,  while  the  whole  of  the  new  world 
is  devoted  to  the  Semitic  principle  and  its  most 
glorious  offspring,  the  Jewish  faith;  and  the 
time  will  come  when  the  vast  communities  and 
countless  myriads  of  America  and  Australia, 
looking  upon  Europe  as  Europe  now  looks  upon 
Greece,  and  wondering  how  so  small  a  place 
could  have  achieved  such  great  deeds,  will  still 
find  music  in  the  songs  of  Zion,  and  still  seek 
solace  in  the  parables  of  Galilee.’ * 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW. 


319 


THE  LONGEVITY  OF  THE  JEWS. 

Next  to  the  Quakers*  the  Jews  are  the  longest- 
lived  people  on  the  globe.  Keliable  statistics 
justify  the  conclusion  of  the  learned  French 
physician,  Dr.  M.  Levy,  that  while  the  average 
term  of  life  among  the  Gentiles  is  twenty -six 
years,  among  the  Jews  it  is  thirty-seven.  Neuf- 


*  While  the  average  length  of  human  life  in  all  countries  is 
about  twenty -eight  years,  and  one-fourth  of  all  who  die  do  not 
reach  the  age  of  seven,  one-half  dying  before  they  reach  the  age 
of  seventeen ;  yet  the  average  life  of  the  Friends  living  in  Great 
Britain,  in  1860,  was  fifty -nine  years.  A  few  years  since,  the 
dram-sellers  of  Great  Britain,  indignant  at  their  failure  to  obtain 
life  insurance  at  ordinary  rates,  organized  a  company  of  their 
own,  and  insured  themselves ;  but  such  was  the  enormous  death- 
rate  among  their  membership  that  the  concern  was  soon  forced 
into  bankruptcy.  On  the  other  hand,  in  the  Society  of  Friends, 
who,  in  the  simplicity  of  their  ordinary  life  may  be  supposed  to 
conform  more  closely  to  Christian  precepts  than  most  religious 
bodies,  insurance  companies  exist  whose  tables  show  that  the 
average  lifetime,  or  ‘  ‘  expectation  of  life  at  birth  is,  in  the  case 
of  a  male  Friend,  45.34  years,  the  mean  average  of  the  general 
public  being  40.86  years.  In  the  case  of  females,  the  difference 
was  less,  that  of  the  Friends  being  45.72  and  that  of  the  general 
public  42. 16.  But  the  average  age  of  Friends  proves  to  be  higher 
than  this,  it  having  varied  in  recent  years  from  slightly  over 
fifty-one  years  to  fifty-eight  years.  A  summary  and  analysis  of 
the  ages  of  deceased  members,  extending  for  more  than  thirty 
years,  shows  that  out  of  940  deaths  there  were  163  persons  under 
the  age  of  thirty  at  death ;  224  deaths  between  the  ages  of  thirty 
and  sixty;  517  who  died  between  the  ages  of  sixty  and  ninety ; 
and  39  who  died  at  the  age  of  ninety  or  above,  five  being  reputed 
centenarians. 

Such  facts  seem  to  indicate  that  however  the  racial  energy  of 
the  Israelites  tends  to  prolong  life,  results  equally  marked  can  be 
reached  in  people  of  other  lineage,  by  observance  of  the  princi¬ 
ples  contained  in  the  Gospel,  through  successive  generations. — 
H.  L.  Hastings. 


320 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


ville’s  investigations  in  Frankfurt  showed  the 
same  result.  The  life  insurance  companies  who 
have  made  the  collation  of  statistics  a  profes¬ 
sion  as  the  basis  of  commercial  computation 
will  tell  you  that  the  life  of  the  average  Jew  is 
more  than  forty  per  cent,  more  valuable  that 
that  of  any  other  people,  except  the  Quakers. 

In  1348,  when  the  black  death  was  raging 
throughout  Europe,  the  Jews  were  exempt  from 
the  plague,  and  were  accused  of  poisoning  the 
wells  of  Christians,  and  under  inhuman  tortures 
the  Jews  were  forced  to  confess  themselves 
guilty  of  the  crime  charged  against  them,  and 
then  were  burned  alive  by  the  thousands. 
Why  are  the  Jews  so  much  less  subject  to  con¬ 
sumption,  cholera,  croup,  typhus,  and  scrof¬ 
ula?  Is  it  not  on  account  of  their  obedience  to 
the  divine  law?  The  Gentile  eats  the  pork  for¬ 
bidden  the  Jews,  and  finds  himself  saturated 
with  humors,  infested  with  tapeworms,  per¬ 
meated  with  wriggling  trichinae.*  So  long  as 
it  is  sometimes  necessary  to  kill  a  dozen  hogs 
before  a  pair  of  sound  lungs  can  be  found,  it 
does  not  seem  strange  that  consumption  is  so 
prevalent  among  the  eaters  of  swine.  Under 

*From  June,  1891,  to  January,  1892,  of  the  544,625  hogs  ex¬ 
amined  at  the  great  packing  centers  under  the  U.  S.  insnect’on 
law,  nearly  two  per  cent,  ■were  affected  with  trichinae. 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW.  321 

* 

Jewish  usages  the  lungs  of  beasts  slaughtered 
for  food  are  carefully  examined  by  the  shochet  or 
killer,  and  if  the  slightest  evidences  of  lung  dis¬ 
ease  are  observed,  the  lungs  are  placed  in  a  ves¬ 
sel  of  water,  and  if  bubbles  arise,  indicating  the 
slightest  defect  in  the  lungs  which  allow  the  air 
to  escape  into  the  water,  the  carcass  is  con¬ 
demned  as  diseased  and  unclean,  and  turned 
over  to  the  Gentiles.  In  a  report  made  to  the 
Jewish  authorities,  and  quoted  by  Dr.  R.  K. 
Picard,  the  following  figures  occurred:  Oxen 
slain,  12,473;  kosher,  or  fit  to  be  eaten,  7,649; 
calves  slain,  2,146;  kosher,  1,569;  sheep  slain, 
23,022;  kosher,  14,580.  In  plain  English,  nearly 
one-half  of  the  animals  killed  are  rejected  as  un¬ 
fit  for  human  food. 

The  Paris  Temps ,  in  a  critique  of  an  article 
written  by  Henry  Behrend  for  the  Nineteenth 
Century ,  advocates  the  adoption  of  the  Tal¬ 
mudic  prescriptions  as  to  food,  particularly  as 
to  meat,  which  through  its  proneness  to  become 
tuberculous,  becomes  the  cause  possibly  of 
more  diseases  than  all  other  agencies  combined. 
The  Temps ,  after  a  discussion  of  the  facts  pre¬ 
sented  by  Mr.  Behrend,  says: 

“All  these  facts  are  evidently  of  a  nature  to 
call  the  attention  of  hygienists  to  the  Talmudic 
dietary  regulations,  and  there  is  no  reason  why 


322 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


the  Jewish  methods  of  slaughtering,  indorsed, 
as  they  are,  by  the  experience  of  so  many  cen¬ 
turies  and  now  by  the  authority  of  contempo¬ 
raneous  science,  should  not  become  regulations 
of  general  observance.  We  have  surely  bor¬ 
rowed  already  from  the  Israelitish  civilization 
more  than  one  custom,  less  profitable  and  less 
justified.”* 

THE  JEWS  A  LAW-ABIDING  PEOPLE. 

The  prison  hardly  knows  of  the  existence  of 
the  Jew.  Governor  Vance,  of  North  Carolina, 
when  pardoning  the  only  Hebrew  in  the  North 
Carolina  penitentiary,  who  was  serving  a  ten 
years’  sentence  for  manslaughter,  indorsed  on 


*  That  Jewish  longevity  is  helped  by  the  care  taken  in  the 
preparation  of  food  is  certain.  It  should  be  stated  here  that  in 
slaughtering  according  to  the  Jewish  method,  the  death  of  the 
animal  is  made  practically  painless  by  the  extraordinary 
precautions  prescribed,  and  any  infringement  of  any  one  renders 
the  whole  carcass  unfit  for  food,  or  Trefa,  according  to  Jewish 
law.  The  maximum  amount  of  blood  is  withdrawn  by  the 
method  of  cutting  the  neck  and  arteries.  That  blood  is  vigor¬ 
ously  forbidden.  No  blood  disease  of  the  animal  can  therefore 
be  communicated  to  an  observant  Jew.  When  the  meat  is 
retailed,  no  sooner  does  it  reach  the  house  than  it  is  thoroughly 
soaked.  Coagulated  blood  is  thus  removed.  It  is  kept  in  salt  for 
at  least  half  an  hour.  The  salt  or  chloride  of  sodium,  is  an  excellent 
germicide  and  effectually  kills  any  germ  which  may  have 
chanced  to  lodge  on  the  meat  in  its  passage  from  the  slaughter¬ 
house  to  the  retailer  and  from  him  to  the  consumer.  It  is  then 
carefully  washed,  and  only  then  is  declared  ready  for  cooking. 
Jews  are  prone  to  nervous  disorders  due  to  their  high  nervous 
organizations  and  mental  activity. 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW.  323 

ihe  document  these  words:  “I  take  pleasure  in 
saying  that  I  sign  the  pardon  in  part  as  recogni¬ 
tion  of  the  good  and  law-abiding  character  of  our 
Jewish  citizens,  this  being  the  first  serious  case 
brought  to  my  notice  on  the  part  of  that  people.  ’  ’ 
Judge  Briggs,  of  Philadelphia,  in  sentencing  a 
Jew  to  prison  for  burglary  said:  “You  are  the 
first  Israelite  I  have  ever  seen  convicted  of 
crime.”  No  Jew  was  convicted  of  murder  in 
the  United  States,  during  the  first  century  of 
the  Nation’s  existence.  In  a  speech  delivered 
at  a  Hebrew  fair  in  Boston,  General  B.  F.  Butler 
said:  “For  forty  years,  save  one,  I  have  been 
conversant  with  the  criminal  courts  of  Massa¬ 
chusetts  and  many  other  States,  and  I  have 
never  yet  had  a  Hebrew  client  as  a  criminal. 
But,  you  may  say,  that  was  because  the  He¬ 
brews  did  not  choose  you  for  their  lawyer.  But 
this  is  not  the  true  answer;  for  I  never  yet  saw 
a  veritable  Israelite  in  the  prisoner’s  box,  for 
crime,  in  my  life.  And,  thinking  of  this  matter 
as  I  was  coming  here,  I  met  a  learned  judge  in 
one  of  the  highest  courts  of  the  commonwealth, 
of  more  than  forty  years’  experience  at  the  bar 
and  bench,  and  I  put  the  same  question  to  him. 
and  he  bore  witness  with  me  to  the  same  effect. 
He  neither  at  the  bar  or  on  the  bench  had  ever 
:seen  any  Hebrew  arraigned  for  crime.” 


324 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


When  Mordecai  M.  Noah,  on  his  accession  to 
the  office  of  sheriff  of  New  York,  was  taunted 
with  the  remark:  “Pity  Christians  have  to  be 
hung  by  a  Jew!”  to  which  he  promptly  replied: 
“Pity  Christians  require  hanging  at  all.” 

THE  JEW  IN  CHARITY. 

In  charity  not  only  do  the  names  of  Sir 
Moses  Montefiore,  Baron  and  Baroness  de 
Hirsch,  Mr.  Jacob  H.  SchifF,  and  Mrs.  Es¬ 
ther  Hermann  shine  conspicuously,  but  our 
Jewish  fellow-citizens  successfully  conduct 
charities  covering  every  conceivable  case  of 
need  and  suffering.  In  New  York  City  alone, 
for  their  twelve  leading  institutions,  the  Jews 
contribute  upward  of  seven  hundred  thousand 
dollars  a  year.  The  Russian  immigration  which 
began  in  1881  compelled  special  measures  of 
relief  to  be  organized,  and  of  their  successful 
conduct,  Dr.  Charles  S.  Bernheimer,  in  Self 
Culture  for  February,  1899,  wrote: 

“As  a  temporary  expedient,  the  Russian  Emi¬ 
grant  Relief  Fund  was  originated  in  1881.  It 
was  succeeded  in  the  same  year  by  the  Hebrew 
Emigrant  Aid  Society  of  the  United  States, 
which  was  established  in  New  York  City,  but 
received  the  co-operation  of  organizations  in 
the  other  principalities.  About  two  million 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW.  825 

dollars  were  expended  by  this  organiza¬ 
tion  in  the  work  of  receiving,  sheltering, 
temporarily  maintaining  and  distributing 
through  the  United  States  and  Canada,  the 
Russian  Jewish  refugees.  Many  were  the  ani¬ 
mated  and  picturesque,  yet  pitiful  scenes 
afforded  by  the  arrival  of  the  downtrodden  and 
persecuted  Jews,  being  cared  for  by  thousands 
of  their  co-religionists  of  America. 

“With  the  renewed  severity  of  the  Russian 
persecutions,  and  the  consequent  further  influx 
of  immigrants  in  the  early  nineties,  general 
movements  for  the  relief  of  the  refugees  were 
organized.  Early  in  1891  the  Jewish  Alliance  of 
America,  composed  largely  of  Russians,  was 
formed  at  a  convention  held  in  Philadelphia. 
Its  aim  was  to  establish  branches  in  a  number 
of  cities,  for  the  purpose  of  distributing  the  im¬ 
migrant  population.  Later  in  the  same  year, 
another  organization,  the  American  Committee 
for  Ameliorating  the  Condition  of  the  Russian 
Refugees,  was  formed  in  New  York  City  for  a 
similar  purpose,  in  response  to  a  call  issued  to 
the  Jewish  societies  of  the  United  States  by  the 
Baron  de  Hirsch  Trust.  The  following  year,  the 
Jewish  Alliance  and  the  executive  committee  of 
the  other  organization,  which  had  been  given 
plenary  power,  coalesced,  and  the  work  which 


326 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


had  been  outlined  by  them  soon  devolved 
upon  the  Baron  de  Hirsch  Fund,  and  the  United 
Hebrew  Charities  of  New  York. 

“Between  1889  and  1891  a  plan  was  under 
consideration,  between  Baron  de  Hirsch  and 
those  who  were  to  become  the  trustees  of  his 
fund,  with  reference  to  the  proposition  of  the 
former,  to  devote  ten  thousand  dollars  per 
month  for  the  amelioration  of  the  Bussian  and 
Eastern  European  immigrants.  In  1891  a  deed 
of  trust  was  executed  by  which  the  sum  of  two 
million  four  hundred  thousand  dollars  was 
placed  as  capital  in  the  hands  of  the  trustees  of 
the  Baron  de  Hirsch  Fund,  the  interest  of  which 
was  to  be  used  for  the  education  and  training 
of  emigrants  from  Russia  and  Eastern  Europe. 
Among  the  provisions  was  authority  to  disburse 
two  hundred  and  forty  thousand  dollars  of  the 
capital  for  acquiring  and  improving  land,  allot¬ 
ting  farm  holdings,  and  erecting  buildings  for 
manual  and  agricultural  training  and  general 
education.  The  income  of  the  fund,  $100,000 
per  annum,  is  used  in  sustaining  an  agricultural 
colony  founded  in  1893  at  Woodbine,  New  Jer¬ 
sey,  and  the  schools  established  there;  a  trade 
school  and  English  classes  established  in  New 
York  City,  an  employment,  transportation,  and 
relief  bureau  in  connection  with  the  United  He- 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW.  327 

brew  Charities  of  New  York  City,  and  public 
baths  (Hon.  A.  S.  Solomons  is  the  efficient  gen¬ 
eral  manager).  In  addition,  local  committees  in 
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston  and  St.  Louis  re¬ 
ceived  sums  for  similar  work  in  connection  with 
employment,  transportation,  relief,  and  educa¬ 
tion.  To  some  of  the  several  hundred  Bussian 
Jewish  farmers  who  bought  abandoned  farms  in 
the  New  England  States,  the  fund  made  loans 
on  bond  and  mortgage  upon  a  strict  business 
basis.  It  assisted  colonies  which  were  in  need 
in  Dakota,  Colorado,  Michigan,  and  other  States. 
It  has  made  loans  also  to  students  to  enable 
them  to  complete  their  college  course. 

“The  Baroness  de  Hirsch  has  since  supple¬ 
mented  the  work  of  her  husband,  who  died  in 
1896.  She  has  made  a  gift  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars,  which  has  enabled  the 
trustees  to  proceed  with  the  erection  of  a  build¬ 
ing  for  the  trade  schools  in  New  York.  She 
has  promised  to  send  one  million  dollars  toward 
the  work  of  ameliorating  the  condition  of  the 
congested  Btussian  and  Eastern  European  popu¬ 
lation  in  New  York  City.  The  first  instalment 
of  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  has 
already  been  received  for  this  purpose,  though 
the  trustees,  we  believe,  have  not  yet  decided 
in  what  manner  to  utilize  the  money.  The 
baroness  has,  moreover,  established  the  Clara 


328 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


de  Hirsch  Home  for  Working  Girls.  She  has 
donated  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  the 
erection  of  a  building,  and  has  provided  for  a 
regular  income  of  twelve  thousand  dollars  per 
annum.  The  purpose  of  the  home  is  to  benefit 
workgirls  and  other  unmarried  women  depend¬ 
ent  on  their  own  exertions  for  a  livelihood,  to 
fit  others  for  domestic  and  industrial  occupa¬ 
tions,  to  aid  them  in  obtaining  employment,  and 
to  assist  them  in  other  ways. 

“But  the  munificence  of  the  Baron  and  Baron¬ 
ess  de  Hirsch,  while  a  magnificent  part  of  the 
present  Jewish  charity  and  philanthropic  work 
of  the  United  States,  must  not  overshadow  the 
splendid  results  achieved  independently  by  in¬ 
dividuals  and  communities.  When  one  considers 
that  about  half  a  million  Bussian  and  Eastern 
European  Jewish  immigrants  have  arrived  in  this 
country  since  the  Bussian  persecutions  of  1881* 


*  The  following  record  of  arrivals  of  Jewish  immigrants  at  the 
port  of  New  York,  from  October  1,  1884,  to  October  1,  1897, 
is  furnished  by  the  late  manager  of  the  United  Hebrew  Charities, 
Mr.  N.  S.  Rosenau: — 


1884-85 . 

. 18,535 

1891-92 . 

. 52,134 

1885-86 . 

. 27,348 

1892-93 . 

. 25,678 

1886-87 . 

. 25,788 

1893-94 . 

. 16,381 

1887-88 . 

. 29,602 

1894-95 . 

. 27,065 

1888-89 . 

. 22,674 

1895-96 . 

. 23,802 

1889-90 . 

. 32,321 

1896-97 . 

. 16,420 

1890-91 . 

. 62,574 

1897-98 . 

. 21,070 

Total . 

. 401,392 

If  to  the  above  number  a  rough  estimate  of  the  arrivals  prev- 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW. 


329 


and  that  the  number  of  Jews  in  this  country 
just  before  that  time  was  estimated  to  be  about 
a  quarter  of  a  million,  the  enormous  task  which 
those  resident  in  the  United  States  have  had 
set  for  them  may  be  conceived.  The  task  was 
the  greater  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  im¬ 
migrants  have  come  to  this  side  with  strange 
language  and  manners,  many  without  trade  or 
knowledge  that  could  be  adapted  for  use;  they 
have  had  to  be  thoroughly  taken  in  hand,  their 
personal  appearance  made  presentable,  abodes 
found  for  them,  and  occupations  secured.  This 
process  has  been  going  on  during  two  decades. 
Plans  are  being  gradually  systematized  by 
which  they  can  become  self-supporting,  intelli¬ 
gent  citizens.  But  the  process  is  slow,  pre¬ 
senting  as  it  does  many  difficulties,  among 
which  not  the  least  is  the  congesting  of  the  im¬ 
migrants  in  the  large  cities,* *  leading  to  unsani¬ 
tary  lives. 

ious  to  1884  (of  which  no  accurate  record  was  kept)  is  added, 
together  with  the  arrivals  at  other  seaports  and  by  way  of 
Canada,  it  will  be  readily  understood  that  half  a  million  Jewish 
immigrants  have  become  part  of  the  population  of  this  country 
since  1881. 

*  Mr.  Myer  S.  Isaacs,  in  an  article  descriptive  of  the  work  of 
the  Baron  de  Hirsch  Fund,  in  the  New  York  Herald  of  June  20, 
1897,  states:  “The  ‘congested’  section  of  New  York  City,  in 
which  dwell  as  many  as  50,000  to  75,000  Jews  of  Russian  or  Polish 
birth  or  parentage,  who  have  not  yet  placed  themselves  in  a 
position  to  be  independent  of  their  surroundings,  is  bounded  by 
the  Bowery,  Houston  and  Canal  Streets  and  the  East  River.” 


330 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


“The  Baron  de  Hirsch  Fund  has  under  con¬ 
sideration,  as  has  been  stated,  the  problem  of 
withdrawing  the  immigrants  from  the  most  con¬ 
gested  quarters.  Its  founding  of  the  Woodbine 
colony  was  one  step  in  that  direction.  The  for¬ 
mation  of  the  colonies  of  Alliance,  Rosenhayn,, 
and  Carmel,  in  New  Jersey,  which  were  aided  by 
gifts  and  loans  from  citizens  and  communities 
of  the  Eastern  States;  the  establishment  of 
colonies  in  the  Western  States,  similarly  aided 
by  individuals  in  that  section  of  the  country 
the  transportation  of  settlers  to  small  commu¬ 
nities  throughout  the  country  are  marks  of  the 
endeavor  to  solve  the  problem  of  the  too  great 
hiving  together  in  the  cities.  It  is  important  to 
n:>te  in  this  connection  that  the  number  of 
places  to  which  immigrants  are  forwarded  from 
the  ports  at  which  they  arrive  is  increasing  year 
by  year.  The  attempts  at  agricultural  coloni¬ 
zation  have  not  been  successful,  in  the  sense 
that  a  majority  of  the  settlers  have  become 
self-supporting  farmers.  Not  being  a  picked 
class,  nor  composed  of  sturdy  out-of-door  people, 
the  settlers,  meeting  one  or  the  other  unfavor¬ 
able  conditions  of  soil  or  climate,  which  pioneers 
often  encounter,  have  been  weakened  in  their 
efforts  to  build  up  colonies. 

“It  can  thus  be  readily  understood  that  the 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW.  331 

Jewish  charities  throughout  the  United  States 
must  have  strongly  felt  the  influence  of  the  im¬ 
migration,  and  that  it  must  have  given  rise  to 
special  agencies  for  aiding  the  immigrants ;  in 
fact,  there  would  have  been  comparatively 
little  need  for  the  charities  without  this  immi¬ 
gration. 

“However,  we  see  evidence  that  the  immi¬ 
grants,  as  they  are  improving  their  own  mate¬ 
rial  condition,  are  now  beginning  to  assist  their 
fellow-countrymen.  A  number  of  charity  so¬ 
cieties,  composed  altogether  of  Russian  and 
Slavic  Jews,  have  been  formed  in  the  large 
cities,  and  with  their  expansion  the  problems  of 
the  charity  societies  will  be  less  difficult.”  The 
almshouse  has  no  need  to  provide  for  the  Jew. 
If  one  Jew  gets  into  trouble  all  the  others  stand 
by  him.  The  divorce  court  seldom  hears  of 
him.  He  is  domestic  above  all  men.  Drunken¬ 
ness  is  not  a  Jewish  vice.  The  only  occupation 
that  does  not  thrive  among  the  Jews  is  that  of 
the  saloon  keeper.  To  the  Potter’s  Field  the  Jew 
is  absolutely  unknown.  With  the  Jews  next  to 
the  respect  for  the  living  comes  the  veneration 
for  the  dead.  In  one  of  the  Boston  papers  some 
years  ago  appeared  the  following  item  : 

“IKEY  ROSENBERG  DEAD.” 

“Some  months  ago,  as  one  of  the  great  ocean 


332 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


steamers  was  plying  toward  the  American 
shores,  and  after  having  left  the  English  coast 
about  twenty-four  hours  or  so,  it  was  suddenly 
discovered  by  those  on  board  that  a  small  pas¬ 
senger  who  was  not  on  the  list  was  aboard.  No 
one  had  seen  the  youngster  during  the  first  day 
out,  and  it  was  only  upon  the  break  of  the 
second  that  he  emerged  from  his  hiding-place. 
He  had  no  father,  no  mother,  no  relatives  or 
friends  aboard,  and  was  absolutely  without  pro¬ 
tection.  The  ship  being  at  sea,  the  stowaway 
couldn’t  be  put  off,  and  being  of  a  most  genial 
disposition  and  nature,  he  in  the  short  time  that 
he  mingled  with  the  passengers,  won  their  good 
will ;  he  thus  excited  their  pity  and  a  number 
of  the  passengers  determined  to  care  for  the 
little  chap,  and  adopt  him  for  the  time  being. 
During  the  voyage  the  passengers  as  well  as  the 
officers  and  crew  became  attached  to  the  little 
waif,  and  the  captain  determined  to  see  to  it 
when  they  reached  shore  that  he  should  be 
taken  care  of  and  a  home  found  for  him.  Upon 
the  arrival  of  the  steamer  at  Boston,  the  captain 
turned  the  youngster  over  to  the  police,  ex¬ 
plaining  to  them  that  he  had  come  aboard,  and 
was  without  relations  or  friends  to  claim  him, 
and  detailing  his  good  qualities.  At  the  police 
station  the  officers  became  so  much  interested 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW.  333 

in  Ikey  Rosenberg,  for  that  was  the  name  they 
gave  him,  that  the  entire  squad  determined  to 
adopt  him  and  bring  him  up.  ‘Ikey’  was  made 
to  feel  that  he  was  at  home,  and  before  a  great 
while  was  a  general  favorite  with  every  officer 
and  attache  in  the  station  from  captain  down  to 
doorkeeper.  Besides  ‘Ikey’  made  himself  gen¬ 
erally  useful.  He  arose  early  and  awoke  the 
officers  at  the  proper  hour,  and  if  perchance 
some  slept  delinquently  he  wouldn’t  rest  until 
they  got  up.  The  discipline  of  the  force,  so  far 
as  early  rising  was  concerned,  became  admi¬ 
rable,  all  owing  to  ‘Ikey ’s’  watchfulness.  Be¬ 
sides  ‘Ikey’  had  a  number  of  other  accomplish¬ 
ments  which  amused  the  policemen,  and  as  the 
time  grew  on,  it  was  evident  that  he  was  des¬ 
tined  to  be,  if  not  the  ‘daughter  of  the  regi¬ 
ment,’  the  son  of  that  particular  police  battal¬ 
ion.  During  the  recent  prevalence  of  the  grip, 
‘Ikey’  became  ill  and  after  the  utmost  care  that 
the  officers  and  the  skill  that  they  could  com¬ 
mand,  was  lavished  upon  him,  poor  ‘Ikey’ 
breathed  his  last,  leaving  behind  him  as 
mourners  a  host  of  friends  whom  he  had  made 
in  the  short  time  of  his  residence  at  the  station. 
The  officers  determined  to  give  ‘Ikey’  a  hand¬ 
some  funeral,  and  will  mark  his  grave  in  the 
pauper  grounds  with  an  imposing  monument. 


334 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


“The  president  of  one  of  the  Boston  syna¬ 
gogues,  immediately  after  reading  the  above 
notice  of  the  death  of  ‘Ikey  Rosenberg,’  which 
could  scarcely  be  that  of  a  Gentile,  sent  for 
the  sexton,  and  directed  him  to  go  to  the  station 
house  and  claim  the  body  and  also  inform  the  poi 
lice  officers  that  the  president  of  the  synagogue 
would  give  the  boy  a  decent  Jewish  burial. 
The  sexton  at  once  repaired  to  the  police  station 
and  faithfully  delivered  his  message.  The  cap¬ 
tain  refused  to  give  up  the  body,  telling  the 
sexton  that  as  the  Hebrews  didn’t  pay  any  at¬ 
tention  to  ‘Ikey’  during  his  lifetime,  and  allowed 
him  to  be  brought  up  by  his  Christian  friends, 
that  they  declined  to  give  up  the  body,  but 
would  bury  it  themselves.  This  message  in¬ 
censed  the  president  of  the  congregation,  who 
directed  the  sexton  to  inform  the  captain  that 
the  Hebrews  always  bury  their  own  dead,  with 
appropriate  rites,  in  consecrated  ground,  and 
that  they  demanded  the  body.  Upon  receiving 
this  message,  the  captain  refused  point  blank  to 
give  up  the  body,  repeating  to  the  sexton  that 
the  officers  of  the  station  would  give  it  a  decent 
Christian  burial.  Thereupon  the  president  of 
the  synagogue  and  a  number  of  the  members  of 
the  same,  with  their  blood  fully  aroused  at  such 
a  sacrilegious  proceeding,  visited  the  station 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW.  335 

house  and  demanded  the  body.  Again  the  cap¬ 
tain  refused.  He  told  them  that,  while  he 
wouldn’t  give  up  the  body,  he  would  invite  the 
president  and  the  members  of  his  congregation 
to  attend  the  funeral.  This  only  added  to  the 
flame  of  indignation  of  the  president  and  his 
company,  and  they  declared  that  they  would  at 
once  apply  to  the  Supreme  Court  for  a  manda¬ 
mus  to  take  the  body.  The  captain  thereupon 
told  them  that,  in  order  that  their  affidavits  in 
the  morning  papers  should  not  contain  any  mis¬ 
statement  as  to  the  derelictness  or  disrespect  in 
the  treatment  of  the  remains  by  the  officers,  it 
would  be  best  for  them  to  view  the  body.  This 
request  the  president  and  his  followers  acceded 
to,  and  the  captain,  calling  his  men  who  were 
in  the  station  to  accompany  him,  escorted  the 
irate  Israelite  into  a  room  in  the  rear  of  the 
station,  where,  upon  a  board,  covered  with  a 
white  sheet,  with  wreaths  of  green  and  cut 
flowers  in  profusion,  lay,  in  his  last  sleep,  ‘Ikey 
Rosenberg’ — a  parrot  /” 

“is  THERE  TO  BE  A  NEW  ST.  BARTHOLOMEW?” 

The  racial  and  religious  prejudice  of  ignorant 
and  superstitious  mediaeval  Europe  threatens 
once  again  to  overtake  the  Children  of  Israel. 
The  following  article  appeared  in  the  London 


336 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


Spectator  (January  14,  1899),  discussing  the 
question:  “Is  thereto  be  a  New  St.  Bartholo¬ 
mew?” 

“We  must  refuse  absolutely  to  believe  that 
there  is  any  real  danger  of  a  new  St.  Bartholo¬ 
mew  in  Paris  in  which  the  Jews  primarily,  and 
the  Huguenots  and  Protestants  in  the  second 
place,  will  be  the  victims  of  massacre.  The 
notion  is  one  which  is  quite  unthinkable  in  a 
civilized  country  like  France.  Yet  we  are  well 
aware  that  there  are  plenty  of  people  in  Paris  at 
this  moment  who  regard  the  danger  as  some¬ 
thing  more  than  possible.  That  they  have  some 
excuse  for  their  opinion  we  do  not  deny,  for  the 
baser  portion  of  the  French  press  has  of  late 
reeked  with  attacks  on  the  Jews.  Not  only 
does  M.  Drumont,  in  the  Libre  Parole ,  a  paper 
which,  we  believe,  circulates  by  the  half -million 
daily,  incite  the  mob  to  attack  the  Jews,  but  a 
number  of  other  papers,  some  of  which,  we 
deeply  regret  to  say,  profess  a  religious  com¬ 
plexion,  hound  on  the  mob  to  what  is,  in  fact, 
massacre.  No  doubt  Frenchmen  are  excitable 
and  mean  less  by  violent  language  than  Eng¬ 
lishmen.  When  they  talk  of  it  being  necessary 
that  blood  should  flow  they  do  not  always  mean 
murder.  At  the  same  time,  we  cannot  forget 
that  history  has  always  shown  that  in  France 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW.  337 

vile  words  are  often  the  precursors  of  vile 
deeds.  Again,  we  must  remember  that  the  out- 
oreak  of  violence  against  the  Jews  and  the 
Protestants  is  not  now  merely  an  affair  of 
‘heady’  newspapers.  There  is  a  large  Anti- 
Semitic  literature,  which  is  apparently  printed, 
published,  and  sold  at  what  we  should  call  here 
religious  bookshops.  In  the  Temps  of  Decem¬ 
ber  4th  last  there  is  an  article  by  M.  Gaston  Des- 
champs  which  shows  that  the  delirium  from 
which  France  is  suffering  is  being  shared  by  a 
section,  at  any  rate,  of  the  Roman  Church,  and 
that  the  men  who  ought,  as  Christians,  to  be 
doing  all  they  can  to  allay  the  outbreak  of 
cruelty  and  injustice,  are  actually  fanning  the 
flames.  We  do  not,  it  is  needless  to  say,  blame 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  as  an  institution 
for  this.  It  merely  shows  that  a  portion  of  the 
French  Roman  Catholics  have  taken  up  what  we 
do  not  hesitate  to  describe  as  a  wicked  and  ab¬ 
solutely  un- Christian  attitude.  “We  must  add, 
also,  that  apparently  the  higher  ecclesiastical 
authorities  as  a  whole  have  not  cared,  as  they 
ought  to  have  cared,  to  take  upon  themselves 
the  duty  of  a  crusade  against  the  vile  monster 
of  Anti-Semitism.  The  church  has,  in  fact, 
missed  a  great  opportunity  for  standing  forth 
and  showing  France  the  duty  of  the  followers 


338 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


of  Christ  when  such  questions  are  involved  as 
those  which  arise  over  the  threatened  persecu¬ 
tion  of  the  Jews. 

“M.  Gaston  Deschamps  decribes  how  he 
went  from  one  vender  of  pious  works  to  another, 
and  turned  over  the  pamphlets  which  lay  among 
the  rosaries,  the  prayer  books,  and  the  pious 
medals.  In  one  shop  he  was  offered  the  ‘Mar¬ 
seillaise  anti-semite,’  dedicated  to  Joan  of  Arc. 
In  this  work  (according  to  M.  Gaston  Des¬ 
champs)  occurs  a  prayer:  ‘0  peuple  de  France, 
leve-toi  avec  Jeanne  d’Arc.  Les  protestants 
eux  aussi  sont  des  traitres  a  la  patrie  Frangaise.’ 
Another  pamphlet  from  the  same  shop  speaks 
of  ‘the  pack  of  Huguenots  who  are  carrying  on 
against  the  army  a  dreadful  campaign.’ 

“  ‘Ces  Huguenots  ont  sans  doute  la  sensation 
des  represailles  que  les  attendant.’  So  this 
tirade  goes  on  till  at  last  we  are  told  that  ‘the 
day  is  coming  near’  when  the  country  at  the 
end  of  its  patience  will  break  the  insupportable 
yoke  under  which  it  bends,  and  will  seek, 
‘apres  une  juste  vengeance  dans  un  avenir 
reparateur,  le  refuge  et  le  salut.’  As  M.  Gaston 
Deschamps  says,  ‘this  is  almost  the  tocsin  of 
St.  Germain — l’Auxerrois.”  And  he  adds:  ‘It 
was  thus  that  certain  theologians  wrote  on  the 
eve  of  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes— 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW.  339 

the  dawn  of  a  day  when  a  fratricidal  proscrip¬ 
tion  destroyed  the  staff  of  our  armies  and 
ruined  for  so  long  our  foreign  trade.’  Yet  an¬ 
other  part  of  this  same  pamphlet  says  of  Col¬ 
onel  Picquart,  who  is  a  Catholic  of  Lorraine: 
‘Sur  la  religion  du  Colonel  Picquart  on  n’est  pas 
bien  fixe;  on  a  de  bonnes  raisons  pour  le  croire 
d’origine  israelite.’  But  we  need  not  give  any 
more  extracts.  It  is  clear,  unless  M.  Gaston 
Deschamps  has,  which  we  cannot  believe,  gar¬ 
bled  his  extracts,  that  the  writers  of  these 
works  hold  up  Jews  and  Protestants  not  only  to 
popular  odium,  but  to  popular  vengeance.  We 
have  no  doubt  that  in  the  writings  of  certain 
French  secularists  things  as  infamous,  or  even 
more  infamous,  have  often  been  said  against 
priests  and  Jesuits ;  but  that  wrong  is  no  excuse. 
Of  what  avail  is  Christianity  if  the  Christian  is 
to  be  no  better  than  his  opponents?  The  way 
to  get  France  back  into  the  paths  of  Christian¬ 
ity  is  by  preaching  and  teaching  the  religion  of 
mercy  and  good  will,  not  by  floods  of  prejudice, 
suspicion,  vengeance,  cruelty,  and  hate  Be¬ 
fore  we  leave  the  odious  subject  of  these  at¬ 
tacks  on  the  Jews  and  Protestants,  it  is  worth 
while  to  note  what  ‘Gyp’  said  to  the  correspon¬ 
dent  of  the  Daily  Mail  after  she  had  been  cast  in 
damages  for  a  libel  on  M.  Trarieux;  ‘Gyp’  had 


340 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


alleged  that  M.  Trarieux  had  become  a  Protes¬ 
tant  in  order  to  make  a  rich  marriage.  Madame 
de  Martel  (‘Gyp’)  declared  that  she  wished  not 
merely  to  drive  the  Jews  out  of  society,  but  out 
of  France,  and  this  she  regards  as  not  impossi¬ 
ble.  After  declaring  that  the  Jews  are  at  the 
bottom  of  the  alleged  Dreyfus  syndicate,  she 
goes  on;  ‘In  all  this  the  Jews,  who  are  the 
prime  movers  of  disorder,  will  get  the  worst  of 
it.  They  do  not  realize  their  danger.  If  the 
social  revolution  comes  they  will  be  the  first  to 
be  swept  away.  Even  now  if  an  attack  were  to 
be  made  on  the  house  of  any  prominent  Jew, 
or  if  an  affray  were  to  take  place  in  the  street, 
and  some  one  were  to  be  killed  then  it  would  be 
impossible  to  prevent  the  matter  from  going 
further.’  This,  of  course,  must  mean  that  if 
only  an  attack  is  begun  upon  this  or  that  un¬ 
popular  Jew,  it  will  end  in  a  general  massacre. 
Nevertheless  we  do  not  believe  that  ‘Gyp’  is  a 
true  prophet.  There  is  danger,  no  doubt,  but 
the  more  clearly  it  is  realized  the  more  anxious 
will  be  not  only  the  Jews,  but  all  who  dislike 
disorder  and  anarchy,  to  see  the  state  and  the 
army  in  the  hands  of  a  strong  man.  Hence,  in 
our  opinion,  there  will  not  be  a  new  St.  Bar¬ 
tholomew,  but  rather  a  dictatorship  in  order  to 
avoid  it.  We  regret  greatly  that  this  should  be 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW.  341 

the  alternative,  for  we  believe  a  liberal  Kepublic 
the  best  government  for  France.  Our  regrets, 
however,  cannot  alter  the  facts,  and  the  leading 
fact  of  the  present  situation  is  that  one  after 
another  all  the  chief  influences  in  France  are 
setting  in  the  direction  of  the  overthrow  of  the 
Eepublic,  and  the  substitution  of  a  dictatorship 
— probably  in  the  hands  of  a  member  of  the 
Bonaparte  family. 

“Even  in  a  case  like  that  of  an  Anti-Semitic 
movement,  which  by  its  cruelty  and  wanton¬ 
ness  causes  a  sort  of  horror  naturalis ,  it  is  as 
well  to  try  to  see  the  case  of  the  other  side,  and 
not  to  assume  that  there  can  be  no  defense. 
Why  do  so  many  Frenchmen  hate  the  Jews? 
How  is  it  possible  that  newspapers  can  be  read 
that  gloat  over  the  prospect  of  Jewish  corpses 
choking  the  sewers?  What  is  it  that  has  caused 
this  outbreak  of  barbarous  ferocity  in  a  civi¬ 
lized  nation?  These  are  questions  easier  to  ask 
than  to  answer.  No  doubt  the  Jews  have  come 
to  the  top  in  many  professions — but  then  that 
can  only  be  because  the  Jews  have  services  to 
sell  which  Frenchmen  as  a  whole  consider  worth 
buying.  The  Jews  cannot  give  a  man  a  great 
practice  as  a  doctor  or  as  an  engineer.  He  gets 
his  wealth  by  obliging  Christians  in  some  form 
or  other.  It  is  said,  too,  that  it  is  naturally 


342 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


maddening  to  Frenchmen  to  see  so  many  great 
official  posts  held  by  Jews — at  one  time  we  are 
told  half  the  prefects  in  France  were  Jews.  But 

m 

surely  the  remedy  for  such  a  state  of  things  is 
not  to  persecute  Jews  and  to  talk  about  the 
necessity  for  bloodshed  to  redress  a  great 
wrong,  but  to  put  such  pressure  upon  the 
government  that  they  will  not  appoint  any  more 
Jews.  Again,  it  is  said  that  the  Jews  are  very 
rich,  which  is  no  doubt  true;  but  that  is  hardly 
a  reason  for  attacking  them,  unless  the  assail¬ 
ants  are  Socialists.  Lastly,  it  is  often  urged 
that  the  Jews  are  too  insolent  to  be  borne,  and 
that  their  overbearing  ways  are  intolerable. 
But  even  granted  that  this  is  so,  how  can  any 
one  seriously  regard  it  as  an  excuse  for  an  Anti- 
Semite  crusade  of  the  kind  that  is  going  on  in 
France?  No  one  can  pretend  that  Jews  in 
France  have  proved  bad  citizens  in  any  real 
sense.  They  have  not  shirked  service  in  the 
army.  They  have  not  avoided  paying  taxes. 
They  have  not  attempted  to  undermine  any  of 
the  institutions  of  the  country.  They  have  not 
as  a  class  dealt  any  blows  against  public  moral¬ 
ity  or  public  order.  The  Jew  as  a  rule  is  a  good 
son,  a  good  father,  a  good  husband,  and  a  good 
patriot — i.  e .,  a  man  willing  to  stand  or  fall  by 
the  country  in  which  he  happens  to  be  a  ctiinze. 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW.  343 

As  far,  then,  as  we  can  see,  the  Jew  is  perse¬ 
cuted  in  France  simply  because  he  is  sup¬ 
posed  to  be  a  disagreeable  person.  He  is  not 
hated,  as  in  Eastern  Europe,  because  he  is  a 
small  money  lender,  or  because  he  has  come, 
largely  owing  to  persecution,  to  practice  certain 
bad  trades,  but  simply  and  solely  because  he  is 
a  Jew — and  so  a  person  about  whom  it  is  always 
safe  to  believe  the  worst.  With  such  a  preju¬ 
dice  it  is  of  course  useless  to  argue,  but  it  is 
impossible  not  to  take  the  Anti-Semitic  feeling 
in  France  into  account  when  one  is  gauging  the 
condition  of  that  country  and  her  prospects  as 
a  nation.  We  are  quite  aware  that  all  France 
is  not  Anti-Semite,  and  that,  indeed,  the 
majority  of  Frenchmen  have  no  wish  to  avenge 
themselves  on  Jews  and  Protestants.  Unfor¬ 
tunately,  however,  there  does  exist  a  large  sec¬ 
tion  who  take  seriously,  and  sympathize  with, 
the  attacks  on  the  Dreyfusards,  the  Semites, 
and  the  Huguenots.  As  long  as  that  section 
exists,  and  it  is  possible  for  men  to  talk  of  a 
new  St.  Bartholomew,  how  can  we  look  upon 
the  state  of  France  without  alarm  and  regret?” 

In  America  the  Jew  has  a  double  claim  to 
recognition — the  claim  of  the  man  under  the 
wide  tolerance  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and 
the  claim  of  the  American  citizen  under  the 


344 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


broad  spirit  of  the  American  constitution.  Has 
he  received  the  treatment  he  merits  as  a  man 
and  the  rights  he  deserves  as  a  citizen? 

In  our  social,  professional  and  even  political 
clubs  the  Jew  is  blackballed.  Hosts  apologize 
for  the  “stranger”  by  assuring  you  that  he  is  a 
good  fellow,  if  he  is  a  Jew.  The  merchant  who 
cheats  his  creditor  or  rivals  his  competitor,  if 
he  comes  of  Hebrew  blood,  has  hissed  at  him 
— JEW.  Judaism  is  made  responsible  for  every 
trick  in  trade.  Do  we  not  derive  all  our  notions 
of  integrity  from  the  Jew,  who  first  taught  the 
world,  “Thou  shalt  not  steal,”  and  “Thou  shalt 
not  bear  false  witness.”  “It  is  an  ill  bird  that 
fouls  its  own  nest.” 

It  is  just  as  unreasonable  to  use  the  word 
“Yankee”  for  all  that  meanness  which,  it  is  said, 
would  cheat  in  the  measurement  if  given  the 
right  to  sell  out  the  Atlantic  Ocean  by  the  pint, 
as  to  make  of  the  word  “Jew”  a  verb  to  desig¬ 
nate  taking  advantage  in  trade.  I  have  seen 
some  mean  Yankees,  who  in  the  words  of  another 
“with  a  jackknife  and  a  pine  shingle  could 
in  two  hours’  time  whittle  the  smartest  Jew  in 
New  York  out  of  his  homestead  in  the  Abra- 
hamic  covenant.”  But  to  despise  all  New  Eng¬ 
landers,  among  whom  are  the  biggest-brained 
and  largest-hearted  people  upon  earth,  on  ac- 


PREJRD  ICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW.  345 

count  of  the  proverbial  meanness  and  trickery 
of  some,  is  certainly  unreasonable  prejudice.  In 
Marlowe’s  “Jew  of  Malta,”  Scene  II.,  Act  I., 
Barabbas  is  made  to  say: 

Some  Jews  are  wicked  as  some  Christians  are, 

But  say  the  tribe  that  I  descended  of 
Were  all  in  general  cast  away  for  sin, 

Shall  I  be  tried  for  their  transgression  ? 

The  man  that  dealeth  righteously  shall  live. 

Never  was  a  truer  word  spoken,  every  Jew 
has  been  made  responsible  for  the  acts  of  every 
other  Jew. 

In  one  of  the  finest  passages  of  Cumberland’s 
“The  Jew,”  Sheva  answers  Sir  Stephen,  who 
cannot  conceive  that  a  Jew  cannot  lend  even  a 
small  sum  without  the  desire  of  doubling: 

“What  has  Sheva  done  to  be  called  a  villain? 
I  am  a  Jew;  what  then?  Is  that  a  reason  none 
of  my  tribe  should  have  a  sense  of  pity?  You 
have  no  great  deal  of  pity  yourself,  but  I  do 
know  many  noble  British  merchants  that  do 
abound  in  pity,  therefore,  I  do  not  abuse  your 
tribe.”  The  prejudice  that  still  exists  against 
the  Jew  must  be  traced  to  this  as  one  of  the 
leading  causes.  One  is  made  responsible  for  all 
and  all  for  one.  Paul  and  Iscariot  were  both 
Jews,  and  yet  many  a  Christian  execrates  the 
nation  from  whom  the  betrayer  of  the  Master 


34-6 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


sprung  and  seems  to  forget  altogether  that  of 
the  same  nation  sprang  Paul,  the  great  apostle. 
Is  it  fair  to  blame  Christianity  for  the  villainy 
of  church  members?  The  teachings  of  the  Bible 
can  only  produce  good.  Why  should  not  the  Ten 
Commandments  promulgated  through  Moses, 
have  as  powerful  and  as  purifying  a  grasp  upon 
the  conscience  of  the  Jew  as  upon  that  of  the 
Gentile? 

Is  it  fair  to  let  prejudice  against  individuals 
develop  into  prejudice  against  a  race?  Let  the 
reproach  be  cast  where  it  belongs  upon  the  in¬ 
dividual  and  not  the  race.  I  have  known  some 
mean  Jews,  just  as  mean  and  low  and  filthy  as 
some  Gentiles.  “Yes,”  to  quote  Rabbi  Kraus,- 
kopf  again : 

“Jews  have  been  mean.  They  have  been 
vulgar  and  vile.  They  have  been  dirty  and 
tricky.  They  have  shunned  the  country  and 
have  infested  the  cities.  They  have  turned 
their  backs  upon  agriculture  and  upon  the 
handicrafts,  and  with  their  rapacious  talons 
have  seized  the  profitable  commerce  and  finan¬ 
ces  of  the  nations.  They  have  been  parasites 
and  usurers.  They  have  been  Shylocks  and 
Iscariots.  Jews  have  been  all  this,  are  all  this, 
and  for  all  I  know,  even  worse  than  this. 

“Not  a  very  flattering  portrait  of  the  Jew  this 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW.  347 

is,  especially  not  when  drawn  by  a  Jew  himself, 
and  by  one,  who,  as  far  as  he  knows,  is  a  Jew 
in  good  standing.  Whatever  merit  this  picture 
has  not  I  claim  for  the  painter  at  least  the  merit 
of  frankness.  A  portrait  of  the  historic  Jew 
without  these  dark  shadows  would  be  as  false  a 
picture  as  would  be  a  portrait  of  an  historic 
Christian,  drawn  wholly  Christlike,  wholly 
saintly,  without  a  touch  of  that  spirit  that 
slaughtered  the  Saxons,  that  manipulated  the 
torture  and  the  rack,  that  originated  the  Inqui¬ 
sition  and  instituted  the  St.  Bartholomew  Night 
Massacre,  that  burned  at  the  stakes  of  Smith- 
fieed,  of  Constance,  of  Rome,  of  Geneva,  of 
Florence,  the  Latimers  and  Husses,  the  Brunos 
and  Servetuses  and  Savonarolas,  those  cour¬ 
ageous  heralds  who  began  to  chirp  the  song  of 
the  New  Dawn.  ‘Paint  me  as  I  look,’  said 
Cromwell  to  the  artist,  who  desired  to  conceal 
some  of  the  Protector’s  facial  defects,  ‘if  you 
omit  any  of  the  scars  and  wrinkles,  you  shall 
not  have  a  penny  for  your  trouble.’  ” 
“Prejudice  against  the  Jew,’’  exclaimed  Rabbi 
Emil  G.  Hirsch,  in  righteous  indignation,  “is 
harbored  especially  by  the  women.  One,  prob¬ 
ably  a  descendant  of  a  good  honorable  fur 
trader,  who  came  to  America  when  the  fur 
traffic  was  profitable,  has  become  anxious  to 


348 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW- 


represent  a  certain  social  nobility,  and  as  even 
the  common  play  of  Christian  Americans  is  not 
good  enough  for  her  daughters,  she  imports 
at  a  high  price  some  foreigner  to  take  the 
daughter  off  her  hands  and  give  her  a  title.  An¬ 
other  is  the  child  of  some  good,  honest  butcher 
who  made  his  money  by  killing  sheep  and  in¬ 
vesting  it  carefully,  and  through  the  unearned 
increment  became  wealthy.  Terribly  learned 
and  terribly  cultured,  she  will  not  mingle 
with  one  that  may  possibly  be  a  descendant  of 
the  family  that  gave  to  the  world  Jesus,  her 
own  redeemer.  It  is  the  American  women 
mostly  that  foster  this  prejudice.  What  is 
their  excuse?  They  affect  to  believe  that  the 
Jew  is  vulgar.  That  the  Jewess  as  a  rule  is  a 
walking,  perambulating  jewelry  establishment. 
The  Jew  cannot  speak  English.  The  Jew  is 
rude.  All  these  ridiculous  charges  are  winged 
arrows  sent  to  keep  at  a  distance  and  to  do  in¬ 
jury  to  a  class  of  men  and  women  who,  to  say 
the  least,  are  as  refined  as  their  snobbish  tra- 
ducers.  If  these  Americans  traveling  in  Europe 
knew  any  language  but  their  own,  so  they  could 
understand  what  is  said  of  them,  they  would 
learn  that  in  Europe  the  Americans  are  held  to 
be  what  these  Americans  hold  the  Jews  to  be. 
Why?  Because  probably  at  rare  intervals  one 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW.  349 

of  their  set  was  of  this  character,  and  as  the 
Americans  in  Europe  are  in  the  minority,  all 
suffer,  as  every  minority  will  suffer,  for  the 
misdeeds  of  one  of  their  number.” 

With  all  the  rough  handling  the  world  has 
given  the  Jew,  it  is  wonderful  that  he  has  no 
more  faults.  For,  as  Shakespeare  made  Shy- 
lock  to  say:  “He  hath  disgraced  me,  and  hin¬ 
dered  me  of  half  a  million,  laughed  at  my  losses, 
mocked  at  my  gains,  scorned  my  nation, 
thwarted  my  bargains,  cooled  my  friends, 
heated  my  enemies — and  what’s  his  reason?  I 
am  a  Jew.  Hath  not  a  Jew  eyes?  Hath  not  a 
Jew  hands,  organs,  dimensions,  senses,  affec¬ 
tions,  passions?  Is  he  not  fed  with  the  same 
food,  hurt  with  the  same  weapon,  subject  to  the 
same  diseases,  healed  by  the  same  means, 
warmed  and  cooled  by  the  same  winter  and 
summer  as  a  Christian  is?  If  you  prick  us  do 
we  not  bleed?  If  you  tickle  us  do  we  not 
laugh?  If  you  poison  us  do  we  not  die?  and  if 
you  wrong  us  shall  we  not  revenge?” 

In  justice  may  the  Jew  apply  to  himself  the 
words  which  the  shepherdess  Sulamit,  in  the 
“Song  of  Songs,”  addressed  to  the  king’s  courtly 
ladies  who  looked  contemptuously  upon  her: 
“Black  am  I  but  yet  comely.  Despise  me  not 
because  I  am  somewhat  black.  Is  it  a  wonder 


350 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


that  I  am  somewhat  disfigured?  Persecution’s 
burning  rays  have  scorched  me  fiercely.  My 
mother’s  children  have  indeed  been  angry  with 
me.  They  have  forced  me  to  keep  their  vine¬ 
yard  and  to  neglect  my  own.” 

Lord  Macaulay  has  truly  said:  “The  Jew  is 
what  we  made  him.”  Leroy-Beaulieu  forcibly 
says:  “Their  virtues  are  their  own,  their  vices 
are  our  making.  Their  virtues  are  the  result  of 
Judaic  teaching;  their  vices  are  the  result  of 
circumstances  which  we  have  massed  about 
their  life.”  Or  to  use  the  words  of  the  late  Sen¬ 
ator  Vance:  “If  the  Jew  is  a  bad  job,  in  all 
honesty  we  should  contemplate  him  as  the 
handiwork  of  our  own  civilization.” 

In  their  dealings  Jews  are  as  honorable  as 
other  men.  Their  social  standards  are  just  as 
low  and  just  as  fine  as  other  people’s  in  corres¬ 
ponding  positions.  Money  often  gets  ahead  of 
the  manners  of  Jews  and  Gentiles  alike.  Where 
do  you  not  find  the  parvenu  in  American  so¬ 
ciety?  How  many  people  do  you  know  who 
have  had  two  generations  of  continuous  wealth 
and  the  conditions  of  refined  society?  The 
noble  exist  everywhere  in  all  races  and  in  all 
religions.  The  inordinate  love  of  gold  is  the  sin 
of  our  day  and  one  of  the  grave  perils  of  our 
civilization.  The  jingle  of  coin  is  the  snare  of 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW.  351 

all  religious  creeds  and  races  alike.  If  we  loved 
God  as  we  love  gold  we  should  soon  be  lifted 
into  angelhood.  The  almost  frenzied  strife  to 
get  money  is  never-ceasing,  and  to  obtain  it 
many  a  Christian  imperils  alike  his  body  and 
his  soul,  and  no  matter  how  despicable  the  man 
may  be,  if  he  gets  money,  by  hook  or  crook, 
and  either  of  them  are  far  from  being  straight, 
he  will  be  idolized,  though  mentally  deficient, 
vulgar  in  person,  ugly  in  features  and  coarse  in 
language.  Let  us  remember  this  truth  when 
we  sit  in  judgment  upon  the  Jewish  people. 
Among  Jews  as  among  Christians  there  are 
those  who  think  more  of  the  man  with  bonds  in 
his  pockets  than  of  the  man  with  bonds  on  his 
hands  and  feet;  there  are  vulgar,  loud-mouthed, 
money-inflated,  offensive  snobs,  who  fill  you 
with  insufferable  disgust.  Among  Jews  and 
Christians  you  find  highly  bred  and  charming 
men  and  women.  But  we  have  judged  the  Jew 
not  individually  but  collectively,  and  so  we 
have  grossly  misrepresented  and  misjudged 
him  to  his  irretrievable  injury.  No  people 
suffer  more  on  account  of  these  vulgar  Jews 
than  the  high-minded  and  refined  Hebrew  men 
and  women.  Are  there  not  Gentiles  who  can 
be  described  exactly  in  the  same  terms?  But 
w  do  not  apply  the  test  to  the  Gentiles  we 


352 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


apply  to  the  Jews — of  holding  the  class  respon¬ 
sible  for  the  sins  of  the  individual. 

Some  years  ago,  in  the  east  side  of  New 
York,  a  Jewish  mother  from  Russia  was  con¬ 
fined,  and  her  little  babe  was  born  without  a 
shred  of  clothing  to  put  on  it.  The  doctor,  who 
had  come  from  the  College  Settlement,  sent 
back  to  the  Settlement  and  got  some  baby  gar¬ 
ments  that  were  kept  for  such  an  exigency,  and 
brought  them  and  put  them  on  the  little  babe 
and  put  the  babe  in  the  mother’s  arms.  The 
mother  shut  her  eyes  and  rested  for  a  moment 
in  that  strange  sweet  ecstasy  of  motherhood, 
and  then  she  opened  her  eyes  and  said:  “What 
Jewish  society  sent  these  to  me?”  The  doctor 
said:  “No  Jewish  society,  my  dear;  they  were 
sent  by  some  Christians.”  The  mother  shut 
her  eyes  and  pondered  a  moment,  and  then  she 
opened  them  again  with  wonder  and  said:  “I 
didn’t  know  that  Christians  could  be  so  kind.” 
Judenhas  cannot  shield  itself  behind  Christian¬ 
ity.  That  gentleness  which  breathes  upon  us 
from  the  hills  of  Judea  makes  kin  of  all  man¬ 
kind. 


THE  RETURN  OF  THE  JEWS  TO  PALESTINE. 

The  proposal  that  a  distinctively  Jewish  com¬ 
monwealth  be  established  in  Palestine  with 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW.  353 

Jerusalem  as  its  capital  is  an  idea  which  is 
spreading  with  marvelous  rapidity  among  the 
Jews  of  all  nations.  It  is  the  outcome  of  a 
state  of  things  which,  to  the  lasting  dishonor 
of  Germany,  Austria,  Roumania,  and  Russia, 
has  rendered  the  lives  of  Jews  intolerable. 
Even  France  is  at  present  unable  to  protect  its 
Jewish  citizens  from  the  onslaught  of  fanaticism 
and  intolerance.  The  Jews  of  England  and  the 
United  States  are  free  from  persecution,  but 
they  are  not  the  kind  of  people  who  would 
ignore  the  sufferings  of  their  persecuted  fellow  - 
Jews  in  other  countries,  and  with  every  fresh 
outbreak  of  Anti-Semitic  fury  Zionism  takes 
deeper  root.  While  all  Jews  deeply  sympathize 
with  their  oppressed  co-religionists  and  hope 
for  the  day  when  the  Holy  Land  will  be  restored 
to  the  Jew,  still  many  Jews  earnestly  contend 
that  Zionism  is  not  the  ultimate  exaltation  of 
Israel.  Oswald  John  Simon,  an  English  Jew, 
writing  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  (September, 
1898),  scornfully  rejects  the  entire  programme 
as  propounded  by  Dr.  Herzl,  Max  Nordau,  Prof. 
Richard  Gottheil,  Rev.  Stephen  S.  Wise,  and 
others  at  the  Basle  Congress.  He  says: 

"‘It  is  almost  inconceivable  that  any  Jew  with 
a  remnant  of  the  iron  spirit  which  has  made  his 
race  the  heroes  of  all  ages  would  accept  as  a 


354 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


final  settlement  of  the  so-called  Jewish  question 
a  condition  of  political  impotence  and  of 
national  paralysis.  No;  in  God’s  name  let  us 
be  victims  of  persecution  in  other  countries,  but 
not  in  our  own.  Let  us  fight  for  our  natural 
human  rights  as  the  citizens  of  any  civilized 
country  to  the  bitter  end ;  but  let  us  not  submit 
to  form  ourselves  voluntarily  into  a  state  which 
could  only  exist  upon  sufferance.  As  an  at¬ 
tempt  to  realize  the  ideal  of  Judaism  the  pro¬ 
gramme  formulated  at  Basle  presents  the  spec¬ 
tacle  of  the  most  contemptible,  if  not  the  most 
grotesque,  species  of  idealism  which  was  ever 
laid  before  the  remnant  of  the  descendants  of 
a  great  nation. 

“Bulgaria!  Servia!  Boumania!  Are  these  to 
be  the  models  of  a  renovated  Israel? 

“Colonize  in  Palestine  and  elsewhere  by  all 
means,  but  the  words  nation  and  state  for  the 
Jewish  people  should  never  be  heard  unless  and 
until  it  can  be  such  a  nation  and  such  a  state  as 
shall  harmonize  with  the  ideas  of  their  faith, 
and  be  worthy  of  their  remarkable  origin.  .  .  . 

“The  only  possible  argument  that  could 
justify  such  a  movement  would  be  to  prove  that 
a  Jewish  State  in  Palestine  would  be  a  real 
haven  of  rest  and  a  deliverance  from  misery  to 
freedom.  No  such  demonstration  is  forthcom- 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW.  355 

ing.  On  the  contrary,  there  is  every  reason  to 
apprehend  that  the  privation  and  oppression 
which  Jews  endure  in  Russia  and  Roumania 
would  merely  be  transferred  to  another  place  if 
they  could  succeed  in  forming  themselves 
into  a  separate  State  in  Palestine. 

“Can  the  advocates  of  this  scheme  point  to  a 
single  instance  of  a  population  enjoying  com¬ 
plete  liberty  who  have  been  subject  to  the  rule 
of  the  Turkish  government — a  population,  one 
must  add,  which  does  not  profess  the  Moslem 
creed?  Terrible  as  the  conditions  of  large  Jew¬ 
ish  populations  in  Russia  and  Roumania  and 
Galicia  are  at  the  present  day,  their  condition 
cannot  be  said  to  be  hopeless,  for  there  is  no 
finality  about  it. 

“In  Russia  and  in  Roumania  they  are  strug¬ 
gling  for  emancipation  as  Russian  and  Rouma¬ 
nian  citizens.  The  backward  civilization  of  those 
countries  is  not  in  the  nature  of  things  a  final  con¬ 
dition  any  more  than  the  backward  condition 
of  England  or  France  two  centuries  ago  was 
final.  Progress  of  thought  and  of  education 
must  inevitably  work  a  change  in  the  state  of 
public  opinion  in  such  an  empire  as  Russia.  It 
is  not  in  accord  with  the  philosophy  of  human 
history  that  a  great  and  powerful  nation  with 
the  vast  geographical  dimensions  of  Russia, 


356 


JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 


standing  as  it  does  within  the  pale  of  Christian 
profession,  can  forever  remain  stagnant  and 
unprogressive.  It  may  be  that  she  is  as  far  be¬ 
hind  the  civilization  of  other  Christian  States  as 
can  be  measured  by  a  century  of  time  or  by 
two  centuries — but  it  would  be  unhistorical  and 
untrue  to  the  experience  of  human  affairs  to 
take  it  for  granted  that  Christianity  shall  for 
all  time  in  one-half  of  Europe  wear  the  garb  of 
paganism  and  stagnation.  So  long  as  the  Jews 
remain  scattered  in  different  parts  of  the  globe 
there  must  always  remain  a  reasonable  hope 
that  in  one  country  after  another  emancipation 
will  be  effected. 

“Suppose  in  the  Middle  Ages,  when  the  Jews 
were  expelled  from  England,  this  panic-stricken 
pessimism  had  seized  them,  and  they  had 
formed  themselves  into  an  independent  State  in 
Syria.  What  would  have  been  the  conse¬ 
quence?  We  should  at  this  day,  in  all  prob¬ 
ability,  have  been  thrown  back  in  the  tide  of 
civilization  as  an  oppressed,  downtrodden 
Oriental  caste  with  the  nominal  badge  of 
nationality,  but  without  the  power  of  national 
independence.  Our  ancestors  suffered  and 
waited  during  the  dark  centuries  between  the 
age  of  Edward  the  First  and  that  of  Cromwell. 
And  now  we  are  part  of  so  many  European 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW.  357 

states  existing  not  on  sufferance,  but  upon  the 
principles  of  natural  human  rights.  To  with¬ 
draw  from  a  State  in  which  we  are  even  perse¬ 
cuted  is  to  abandon  our  claim  to  those  natural 
human  rights  to  which  every  unit  in  each  State 
is  entitled,  and  from  which  he  is  only  excluded 
through  the  operation  of  false  views  and  of  de¬ 
mented  philosophy. 

“Palestine  is  the  last  place  on  earth  to  select 
for  the  settlement  of  a  Jewish  State  just  be¬ 
cause  it  is  Palestine.  A  settlement  there  means 
a  final  settlement.  For  good  or  for  evil  it 
would  represent  the  end  of  all  things,  an  ab¬ 
sorption  of  every  principle  for  which  we  have 
struggled  since  our  ancestors  were  exiled.  And 
we  know  that  the  whole  of  Palestine  could  not 
contain  the  Jewish  population  of  the  world, 
for  it  is  no  bigger  than  Wales. 

“Personally,  and  I  am  by  no  means  an  ex¬ 
ception,  I  should  utterly  object  to  live  under 
the  suzerainty  of  the  Sultan,  or  the  joint 
guarantees  of  the  Powers.  Our  co-religionists 
in  Roumania  have  had  twenty  years’  expe¬ 
rience  of  living  under  the  guarantee  of  the 
Powers.  And  they  have  learned  to  their  bitter 
cost  that  the  vital  forty- third  article  of  the 
Treaty  of  Berlin,  upon  which  their  freedom  ab- 


358  JUSTICE  TO  THE  JEW. 

solutely  depended,  was  remitted  by  the  Powers 
to  be  absolutely  ignored  by  the  new  petty  king¬ 
dom.  When  our  ancestors  were  a  nation  in  the 
political  sense  they  were  not  dependent  upon 
guarantees,  powers  or  suzerainties. 

“To  a  Jew  who  has  discarded  the  Biblical 
aspects  of  Judaism,  Palestine  can  have  no  per¬ 
manent  attraction.  If  he  wanted  to  form  a 
Jewish  State,  Palestine  would  be  the  one  place 
on  earth  which  he  would  scrupulously  avoid. 
It  has  nothing  to  recommend  it  except  its 
Biblical  associations. 

“The  West,  and  not  the  East,  is  the  natural 
sphere  for  political  development.  The  deaden¬ 
ing  influence  of  Turkish  rule  and  Eastern  civili¬ 
zation,  as  we  know  them  to-day,  are  not  sugges¬ 
tive  of  progress  and  enlightenment  any  more 
than  Russian  ideas  are  indicative  of  freedom 
and  liberty.” 

AMERICA,  THE  JEWISH  CANAAN. 

In  God’s  good  time  a  morning  has  dawned  for 
the  Jew— dawned  in  the  West,  where  his  woes 
shall  cease.  When  on  their  Festival  days  the 
Jews  say  to  one  another:  “Next  year  in  Jeru¬ 
salem,”  few  interpret  that  faith  of  their  fathers 
literally.  In  America  at  least  those  Israelites 


PREJUDICE  AGAINST  THE  JEW.  359 

are  hard  to  be  found  who  whisper  to  themselves 
with  Jehudah  Halevy:* 

“  My  heart  is  in  the  East,  though  in  the  West  I  live, 

The  sweets  of  human  life  no  happiness  can  give. 

Religious  duties  fail  to  alike  lift  my  soul  on  high, 

For  Zion  writhes  ’neath  Edom,  I  in  Arab  fetters  lie. 

No  joy  in  sunny  Spain  mine  eyes  can  ever  see, 

For  Zion’s  dust  alone  hath  any  charms  for  me !” 

Dr.  Theo.  Herzl,  of  Vienna,  the  leader  of  the 
Zionist  movement  in  Europe,  in  a  recent  ad-, 
dress  in  London,  said:  “My  words  to  the  West 
have  fallen  on  deaf  ears ;  but  my  words  to  the  East 
are  producing  an  abundant  harvest.”  Heine 
said:  “If  all  Europe  were  to  become  a  prison, 
America  would  still  present  a  loophole  of  es¬ 
cape,  and,  God  be  praised!  that  loophole  is 
larger  than  the  dungeon  itself.” 

America  is  the  Zion  from  which  goes  forth 
the  law.  Here  is  liberty  enlightening  the 
world.  America  and  not  Palestine  is  the  Jew¬ 
ish  Mecca.  America,  peerless,  unrivalled,  un¬ 
approached  and  unapproachable  America,  has 
become  the  Jewish  Canaan.  America  is  the 
refuge  of  the  oppressed  of  all  the  nations. 
Take  your  harps  down  from  the  willows  and 
sing  the  songs  of  Zion.  Here  you  have  found 
not  only  liberties,  but  Liberty! 


translated  from  the  original  by  Rev.  Dr.  H.  Pereira  Mendes. 


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